


Kitty Drabbles

by lemonycake, sreracha



Category: The Dark Artifices Series - Cassandra Clare, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Cats, Dancing, Descriptions of Meltdowns, Long-haired Kit Herondale, M/M, Many AU's, Most Chapters Ship Related, Not All Chapters Ship Related, One Shot Collection, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rain, Suits, Witch AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-16
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2019-03-19 05:08:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 25,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13697511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lemonycake/pseuds/lemonycake, https://archiveofourown.org/users/sreracha/pseuds/sreracha
Summary: Credit goes to sreracha for being my lovely beta reader!!Basically just a collection of Kitty stories that will probably remain unfinished. Suggestions are always appreciated, as are kudos and comments. But more than anything, please enjoy reading these!!!





	1. A Reminder of Something Once Beautiful

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kit has been growing out his hair, and it gives Ty some Emotions™. (Not trying to poke fun, just trying not to spoil everything, my dudes.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: There's a description of a meltdown in this chapter, and if things like that affect your mental health, please don't read this one.
> 
> WARNING 2.0: There's also a MAJOR spoiler for Lord of Shadows, so again, don't read this chapter if you don't want those.

Ty rolled over in his bed, suddenly more awake than ever when seeing who was in it. Kit Herondale was asleep next to him, with rivulets of drool escaping his open mouth. He snored softly, rattling the silence that distilled with the combination of the morning’s light gently wafting through Ty’s linen curtains. Kit’s hair tangled all around his head, splayed out over his pillow. 

Ty thought that they must have fallen asleep together after marathoning _Sherlock_ on his computer. It was a television show that retold the story of Ty’s favorite characters, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. Though it wasn’t true to the stories of the books sometimes, Ty didn’t completely hate it like he thought he would, but that didn’t mean that he would ever watch it again. Kit was the one who instigated the watching of television; Ty preferred to read about the mysteries that Kit’s show failed to deliver. Speaking of Kit, it had been a long while since he’d last gotten a haircut. 

His head looked like a mop of blonde far past the base of his neck. The wispy thin tips licked at his collarbone and swept past his shoulders. Even though Kit’s hair was getting to the point to where he had to unironically carry hair ties, Ty still somehow liked it. Whenever Kit decided to put it up in a tiny bun or a ponytail, there would be millions of pieces of it that just fell out, due to his hair being layered the way it was- shorter underneath than on top. 

There was something about the contrast between their hair length, color, and texture that just fascinated Ty over and over again. While Kit had long blonde curls, Ty’s hair was cropped, straight and black as night. 

If there was one thing that Ty particularly enjoyed about Kit’s hair, it was entertaining the thought of a task that he would occasionally perform with his twin sister, Livvy. She knew how he appreciated repetitive tasks, how grounding they were to him, so there were times when he would sit on her bed with her beneath him on the floor- Livvy would pass him her hairbrush and let him go to town. Ty relished the way the brush could glide through her hair after a few gentle strokes. Sometimes Livvy would let this go on until she was drowsy at the mercy of Ty’s hands and the brush in her hair. 

It had been so long, he thought, since he’d touched someone’s hair. Ty reached out, rubbing a tendril of Kit’s between his deft fingers. The piece was knotted and tangled; such indescrepencies didn’t stop it from being softer than Ty had ever imagined. For some reason, he thought it would be coarse and prickly like straw. Though that would’ve been an interesting feeling, he preferred touching this- just knowing that it was attached to Kit made him feel better than thumbing at a book’s pages or tracing the crystalized outer edge of a cup. He sunk his hand deeper into the mass of unkempt blonde. It felt like stringy velvet, long and golden and actively slipping out of his grasp as Kit moved to face him. 

Kit said his name softly as if asking what he was doing. He was all but awake next to Ty, glowering in the direction of his eyes. Kit wiped away his drool with an exhausted fierceness that the other had no clue existed. Normally, looking at people’s faces and noticing their expressions was difficult for him to do, but with Kit everything involving people seemed so much easier. Kit wasn’t forceful like the people outside of his family when Ty did or didn’t do something, like making eye contact. He never seemed to mind that Ty felt it too strong of a sensation to keep a steady gaze or a stationary hand. He attempted to understand Ty, but never smothered him. There was an unspoken admiration between them, Ty had caught up on it before Kit. They were mutually bonded by their trust and ability to rationalize with each other’s complexities. 

Kit placed his hand over Ty’s, sighing softly. There was a distinct gentleness in his touch, one that Ty could only match to Kit. 

“I like your hair,” Ty remarked, withdrawing his hand. It fluttered impatiently beneath the blanket. Meanwhile, his other hand found the drawstring of his hoodie that he’d worn the day before, wrapping and unwrapping it around his index finger. Touching people and being touched by people was always hard, even if it was someone that he knew well and trusted. Even his older brother Julian’s touch gave him trouble if it was too sudden. Kit wasn’t related to him at all, but Ty found interacting with him to be a seemingly mindless task. 

Kit gave him a look so peculiar that it made his heart jump. There were his curved eyebrows overshadowing his tired eyes; his lips were upturned in confusion. He was the vision of expression, vitality, and life. Sometimes Ty wished he could be that expressive, but knew that it would end up being too much to handle. Kit could handle showing his emotions to everyone through his ocean blue eyes (even if he insisted that no one could ever tell what emotion he possessed), but Ty wouldn’t know what to do with himself if people constantly knew how he was feeling. He was afraid that people would try too hard to understand- that they would infantilize him whenever his feelings grew to be too overbearing. 

He didn’t like being treated as if he was younger or being held back from anything just because he had ‘autism,’ Kit had said. Ty thought he understood why Kit had told him about it. It might’ve been to make him feel less alone in his struggles, but Ty never felt alone in that sense. He only felt like everything was spinning out of control- like throwing a glass at the wall and trying to count each of the shards that hit the floor in perfect order.

Ty knew that as soon as Kit began to speak that he ought to pay attention, but he only found himself staring off into space. “You like it?” Ty caught just in time. He was suddenly grinning and it made the sun shine a bit brighter in Ty’s head. “I never would’ve guessed, since it definitely wasn’t in your hand and all.” Kit playfully rolled his eyes. The other recognized and noted his sarcasm, not bothering to laugh at Kit’s attempt.

“Yes, I do,” he said rather plainly. “When she- when Livvy was still here, she used to let me brush her hair, and I guess I just like long hair now.” His voice sounded far away, choked and wrong. Livvy was his pillar of support, his place of sanctuary when things got to be more than his brain could process. It wasn’t often, per say, but it was nice to have something to fall back on when the glass shattered loudly inside his head. Now that she was gone, Ty liked to believe that Kit stepped up to fill her role. He wasn’t the best at it most times but it meant a lot to Ty to know that he tried. 

Kit turned over the phrase in his head. He looked at Ty’s endlessly transposing eyes and he was in the presence of a brilliant grey that was almost silver. He was amazed to find Ty looking at him, reading his every move. His eyes never quite caught his own, but it wasn’t like Kit was complaining at all. Ty didn’t like eye contact or sudden touches. He liked for sensations to be kept down to a minimum while his brain nibbled at the information his surroundings held, so he often would be seen with his headphone cables dangling from his ears with a symphony inundating quietly from them. “If you want- I mean you don’t  _ have  _ to do it if it was just you and Livvy’s thing- but if it’s ever something you want to do, with me, I’m totally for it.” Kit stumbled over his words, imagining Ty taking solace in brushing his hair. Sure, it wasn’t an ordinary thing to do, but then again, Ty wasn’t ordinary. Never in a bad way did Kit mean that. He didn’t think that he could ever say something like that about him. 

Ty was radiant and always in motion. Maybe that’s what caused his body to be the way it was- that restlessness that always had him moving. While Kit was shorter, Ty was tall and lean. He was pale where Kit was tanner, sharper edges of trained muscle outshined Kit’s natural skinniness. He was a great climber, a bug and reptile enthusiast, a soon-to-be detective and Kit could find no words other than genius or amazing to describe him. 

“I would like to,” said Ty, breaking Kit out of his trance. His clear-cut irises flitted on and away from Kit’s, not willing to lock again. “I just don’t have the brush.” He thought about where it might be and was immediately faced with the realization that it was on his dresser. It was one of Livvy’s possessions that he couldn’t bear to not have by his side. “It’s on the dresser over there,” he gestured in a vague direction, knowing Kit’s eyes landed on it as he spoke. 

Kit’s nose scrunched when he noticed that the brush was all the way across the room. It wasn’t that much of a distance, it was maybe seven or eight feet away, but Kit had the bad habit of laziness on his side. “Are you really sure about this, Ty?” He inquired. His hands held the blanket firmly in place at his neck. Though he was more than willing to do this for Ty, Kit found that his drowsiness was getting the best of him. 

Ty exhaled sharply, a tiny smile slipping past his guard. “You just don’t want to get up, don’t you?” Kit, after a moment’s hesitation, nodded. “It’s fine if you want to wait. I’m still tired, too. And besides, it’s not like you’ll cut it today. I know you’ve been debating it.” He had been observing Kit’s behavior for a significant amount of time. Ty could tell that Kit liked having long hair, no matter how much it got in his way. 

The boy laying next to him gave an over-exaggerated gasp. “How dare you accuse me of that?!” He blurted, a hand drew up to his chest. Along with his hand, his voice was raised an octave, indicating that he wasn’t serious about the words he was speaking. Ty knew that he was kidding because of his overdrawn reaction. Kit knew how to keep him informed of his sarcasm and playful nature without outright saying it- it was just one of the things that he did well. 

“Like I said,” Ty started, “we don’t have to.” He watched the progression of emotions on Kit’s face. He went from playfully angry to nearly unreadable. Before Ty could think of anything else to say, Kit was sitting up and tossing the blanket off his body. The mattress lifted as he launched himself into a brisk amble over to the dresser. Ty missed his warmth every moment he was gone. Kit was so far away, stopping only to gently take the brush from off the dresser.

It was normal-looking enough, plastic and black with thin bristles. But to Ty, it was a beautiful artifact, an unsung requiem of his sister. 

Kit lowered himself back on the bed after making the trek back; he tapped the space next to him. He looked as Ty sat up, his lips spread thin into a grin. “I might have to brush your hair too. It looks like an explosion hit you.” Ty took a moment to grapple with his language (he had trouble understanding idioms and such, but luckily Kit didn’t use many), but he understood the point almost instantly. 

Kit was joking once again. He didn’t want to mess up Ty’s perfect bed head. It stuck up in all directions- black spears rose from his scalp in unison yet also in an identical cacophony. He was reminded how much he liked Ty every time he looked at him. In fact, his heart tended to grow a few sizes whenever Ty did anything remotely normal but he thought it was always remarkable. There was an endless amount of admiration for Ty somewhere in his tiny heart. 

“Don’t make excuses. I want this too. It’s a happy memory for you, and all I want is for you to be happy.” Kit’s voice was soft, but it affected Ty the same as a shout. It made his pulse rattle for a moment before he regained his composure. 

He only nodded at Kit, scooting closer, to where he was behind the other. Ty took the brush and stole a deep huff of oxygen. He had one last chance to make an excuse so that Kit would not see his weakness. “But I’ll cry-”

“So cry then.” Kit spoke louder this time and it resonated through Ty. “It isn’t weak to cry. It isn’t something that I’ll judge you for, and it isn’t something that will make me treat you any differently.” He whipped around, and Ty could see it all. The remnants of sleep on his face, around his eyes, and on his lips. It was in his tousled clothes and still-tangled hair. And what stood out from it all was the accentuated passion deep in his voice. “I cried when I saw my dad go, and my relationship with him wasn’t even close to that of yours and Livvy’s. She was important to you-you love her, Ty; and I would never,  _ ever _ judge you for crying because you lost her.” He stared into Ty’s eyes, rendering it impossibly uncomfortable for him to not pay attention to what he was saying. “And if you want to pretend that she's her in me for a little bit- if it could stand a chance at making you feel better, I would be okay with that.”

Kit took Ty’s wrists in his hands as he spoke, making him drop the brush onto the bed. The tough squeeze that he gave them was grounding, but it also scared Ty. He’d seen Kit do things like a teenage boy- rough and unforgiving, but he never thought that Kit was capable of doing such things to him. It was like Kit was always just a bit gentler when touching Ty, or just a bit quieter when talking to him. But seeing him now, speaking in the same defiant tone as to any unyielding adult made Ty nervous.

He felt his wrists and back involuntarily begin to shiver. There were streams hot and wet that slowly slipped down his cheeks. Despite this, Ty smiled. It was genuine and true as his lips quivered right along with the rest of his body. 

As Ty began to shake, Kit was brought back from his tangent of a speech. Kit was digging past the guards of Ty’s eyes with his own, paving the way straight into his heart. He suddenly noticed that his grip on Ty was entirely too harsh and that he was probably scaring him. He felt his blood rush about his body as he recoiled completely from Ty, hoping that he wouldn’t be exiled for this behavior. 

Instead of finding an angry Ty, Kit only found a sight he never thought he’d see. Ty was crying, but as Kit looked at him for not even a second more he saw the small smile that was on his face. Normally, Ty smiling wouldn’t be much of a big deal, but crying was a really big deal- Ty never permitted letting anyone see him cry. And the odd combination of the two set Kit askew.

“Ty, I-” 

“Kit. Don’t.” Ty said. His smile had long faded as more and more tears fell down. They stuck to his dark eyelashes and some refused to let go. “I understand what you mean. Julian used to tell me that crying is okay, but hearing it from you means so much more. I feel like you’re always honest with me, Kit. Just like the way that Livvy was honest with me. You remind me of her so much-” his voice kept breaking; he was full-on weeping now. Kit noticed that he was practically vibrating in his place. “Livvy; I miss her so much- why did it have to be her? It could’ve been anyone else and it wouldn’t hurt this much-” 

He rambled low and fast under his breath, and his hands were tangled in his hair and around his body, frantically searching for a place to land and never finding it. It didn’t even sound like speaking anymore, Tiberius was just mumbling incoherencies while Kit looked on, mostly unsure of what to do. He looked like a figure from an unsettling art piece of nauseating colors and blurs of movement. 

Ty was falling apart in front of Kit. His head was wracked with the mantra of his sister’s name and the image of her face. She was everywhere except where she needed to be, which was right there in front of him, holding his hand whenever it was too much. Ty felt hot and cold at the same time. His lungs weren’t allowing for his control and forced his breath out and in faster and faster until he was hyperventilating. His heart was jittering and bouncing in his chest, launching itself painfully into his ribs. He felt his body start to fold in on itself as it did in these situations, but the familiarity of a meltdown was the least bit comforting. Ty tried to limit his field of vision with his hands and cover his ears to prevent sound all at the same time. He was choking on his wild sobs. Everything was suddenly too bright and too loud and it was all moving too fast. His breath was completely lost now, just a sound to add to the endless discordance of his thoughts and fears and the sight of Kit’s worried face swirling in and out as he cried and cried for Livvy. 

He reached out to connect with something, anything that could be of help- and was met with Kit’s firm grasp around his body. Ty immediately locked his hands in Kit’s shirt and his hair, holding tight, tight and tighter still. Kit returned the gesture knowingly. He felt his heart thrum in time with Kit’s and knew that he was scared too, despite his initial calm. It was true that Ty was still as bad as before, but now in Kit’s arms, everything looked just a bit brighter. He sunk deeper into Kit’s hold with a quiet cry, soaking his shirt with tears and snot and sweat. 

Kit felt himself losing his composure. Watching Ty go through this was heartbreaking at the best of times. He knew that eventually, he would be back to his normal self, but seeing this happen was worse than he could ever describe. Kit thought that if he was in Ty’s shoes, he would never be able to recover from the smallest sign of a panic. The first of his tears fell from his eyes as Ty buried his dark head in the crook of his neck. 

The relief of finding each other washed over Kit and Ty, and they held each other tight until there was nothing left for them to cry about. Even in that silence, they were still in each other’s arms for minutes or hours afterward. They didn’t dare let go until they both felt safe and balanced again, while the sun shone brightly through the curtains. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was painstakingly difficult to write, but I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless!!! :)


	2. Waltz The Night Away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kit and Ty go to a dance. Cute moments ensue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait!! I couldn’t bring myself to stop writing this one.
> 
> This chapter is incredibly long for some reason,,, I even had to cut some material out to make it shorter and it was still around 10,000 words. Please don’t expect all future chapters to be this length!!
> 
> Also, I know that I didn’t quite get Ty right with this one. Nothing really worked with me, so I just decided to wing it.

‘'Demon' is almost a normal word for Kit, now.

After living in the Institute for a few months, he was used to hearing it being said constantly, but that didn’t mean that seeing them was a normality. What -or who- Kit saw the most of those days was a certain pair of twins that made his heart melt every time he looked in their mismatched eyes. Even though he loved Livvy’s blue-green globes, it was safe to say that he preferred Ty’s cold steel irises.

While Kit got more and more acquainted with the Los Angeles Institute and its inhabitants, he found himself drawn to Ty. He had no idea why that was happening; whether it had to do with his first meeting with Ty (which preceded everyone else’s introductions, besides multiple briefings with Emma, but she’d just wanted to talk to his father then) or if it was just an obsession or infatuation with him.

Speaking of meeting Ty, Kit had a place to be on a particular day at a particular time. He remembered the adults (specifically Julian and partly Emma) calling for a sort of board meeting in the library, and they said that everyone that was over the age of Dru and younger than Julian had to attend. Certainly, Kit thought, he would not participate- that was where Ty came in.

He kept doing this thing that irritated Kit but fascinated him all at the same time. The only thing about this that could ever make Kit angry was how riveting it was to see the usually expressionless Tiberius Blackthorn with a tiny smile on his face, twiddling his thumbs together as he whispered happily to himself. Ty would mumble on and on under his breath, absolutely ecstatic to find out what the meeting would be covering and how he would find a role in helping, Kit assumed. What made Kit even more upset was how this was something no one else seemed to notice. It was one of Ty’s most radiant moments of happiness and yet no one paid attention to it. Kit thought if he could only see that sight for a moment longer, he wouldn’t even be mad that no one else did.

And there Kit was in the large, lavish library of the Institute, seated across from the Ty at the main table. He had a book in his lap, but he didn’t seem the most interested in it since his mouth was moving. Though, Kit could hear the occasional turn of a page.

They were waiting for the rest of their counterparts to arrive since Ty always spent his time in the library and Kit always spent his time with Ty or Livvy.

  
Kit was enthralled by Ty, never finding the right words to say around him. He was unable to make jokes most of the time Ty was with him. Usually, it would sound too stupid, or it would make him sound stupid. Or he would have to explain it. It wasn’t that Kit felt it a task to explain things to Ty, it was that explaining his jokes made them unfunny and there was a low chance that Ty would laugh, even if they were. Jokes weren’t really his thing, Kit had gathered.

“Christopher,” said Ty under his breath, mixed with his usual ramblings of words he liked the sound of. He was looking at his lap, at the book in his large hands. Ty never called him by his preferred name. Though it wasn’t like Kit had that big of a problem with it; the only time people called him Christopher was either when they were upset with him (in his father’s case) or when they were reaffirming his lineage as a ‘Herondale.’ But even though hearing it usually left him unnerved or annoyed, Kit enjoyed hearing Ty say it- he just liked hearing Tiberius talk.

It wasn’t the name drop that shocked Kit, it was its placement in Ty’s special list. In his normal mantra, the words were arranged as follows: ‘Glass, twin, apple, whisper, stars, crystal, shadow, and lilt.’ But with the accommodation of Kit’s first name, the list was altered just so.

“Glass, twin, apple, whisper, stars, crystal, Christopher, shadow, lilt.” Ty’s voice was smaller than usual, and his cheeks a bit redder. He looked absolutely overwhelmed with positive feelings.

Kit couldn’t help his staring. It was like Ty’s quiet was a magnet and Kit’s attention was pure iron or cobalt. He attracted Kit in a certain way, invoking a pure emotion inside his heart. With his staggeringly high intelligence and his love for small animals and insects, he swayed Kit’s very being.

It wasn’t until Kit noticed Ty’s eyes on him that he returned to reality. He felt his face become hot as he tried to stand his ground but Ty easily overpowered him in this game of eye contact, though not meaning to. But it wasn’t like Ty was staring at him, more so he was staring through him, at something in the distance. Kit hoped that someday he would be the type of person to capture Ty’s unlimited attention like that.

Kit was about to say something to alert Ty about his out of character behavior when the door to the library burst open. Emma, Julian, and Livvy all filed in, in an indeterminable order. Kit didn’t really care for their unexpectedly quick arrival since he was close to starting a conversation with Ty.

Once everyone was situated, it was time for the meeting to begin. Livvy took her place next to Ty, looking especially smiley; Emma and Julian moved to the front of the table, bringing two chairs with them so they could both equally address the room. While Emma was her usual self, Julian was more tired than normal, laden with an emotion that Kit couldn’t place.

“We’ve discovered demons in the area,” Julian was the first to speak. Kit saw out of the corner of his eye that Ty had closed his book and was looking around Julian, almost nervously.

Julian’s words didn’t phase anyone- demons were normal for Shadowhunters to deal with. “At a high school nearby-”

“They’re not very dangerous overall,” said Emma, interrupting. She was practically brimming with the news that there was something to target. “I believe we have bigger inner demons to face, though we probably shouldn’t call them that. It’s like- avowals, I guess,” Her playful gaze was fixed on Ty. Kit had to admit his confusion with her wording. It was so unlike her to target inner demons when slaughtering the physical ones outside mattered most to her. It didn’t seem to make any sense to Kit, but Ty scowled incredulously at his hands. She grinned, offering the rest of the speech to the boy seated next to her. Julian looked like he was trying not to be affected by her interruption.

“These demons,” Julian reigned the conversation back to its center, “only seem to attack when the school day is over. At events and things like that. Somehow they know not to disturb when there’s more adult supervision,” he stated with his hands clasped neatly in front of him on the table, his face unreadable. “Emma and I have investigated the school and we discovered that they’ll be holding an event soon.”

Kit noticed that Livia was practically vibrating with excitement. “And why are you telling this to us?” She was obviously trying to be casual and contain her ardor.

Julian sighed at her reaction. “Because we’ll be sending you all in undercover to gather intel about the demons,” his voice sounded off, like he wasn’t in his element in this position. “At their annual Valentine’s Day dance.”

Kit was zoning out, trying to decide whether everything was truly normal or not. Livia seemed more peppy than usual, and Julian more exhausted (almost annoyed) for reasons of which he had no idea. Another wandering thought was the lack of reasons as to why Ty was also acting strangely. He was never fully out of his head until he was being thrust a bundle of clothes and told to go change into them by Livvy.

His description of the clothes he received was a pair of black slacks accompanied with a white-collared dress shirt and a navy blue waistcoat. There was a notable lack of a coat. Apparently, none of Ty’s (2) suit jackets fit his ‘tiny arms.’

 

Kit never liked to face the fact that he wasn’t the tallest or broadest guy, but seeing himself in the mirror of his bedroom being nearly dwarfed in Ty’s old clothes made him feel more than inadequate.

The sleeves of the dress shirt fell to his first set of knuckles, and the fit of the waistcoat left him thinking that he’d be able to fill it out more if he had breasts. The slacks weren’t so bad, just reaching his ankle like any pair of pants. These were said to be the oldest of the clothes, being from right before Ty turned 14. The reality of it made him even less confident, but it wasn’t terrible- at least he was coming even a fraction close to Ty’s size.

Ty wasn’t even that much bigger than Kit, but he was somehow lankier and more muscular than him. While Kit was shorter, it wasn’t like he had no muscle. He’d been working hard on improving his form, but it didn’t compare to the years of intense Shadowhunter-y things that Ty was doing that worked for him so well.

Kit gave one last cringe to the mirror before stalking out of his room to find a beautiful woman just down the hall, in front of the large staircases that led to the highest floors of the Institute. This woman he recognized immediately as Livvy.

She was in formal clothes, like him. A floor length gown shrouded her marked skin, covering her various runes. It was a powdery pink color (Kit thought she would look better in a darker blue, but that was just his opinion) and it reminded him of Greek fashion. With flowy fabrics all around her lean figure and two belts around her waist, Livvy looked like a goddess. Her hair was a brown halo, spilling all down her back and over her shoulders. She was holding a pair of black loafers with a pair of equally black socks stuffed inside of them.

“Ty-Ty!” She called for her younger brother, unaware that Kit was staring at her. “We’re gonna be late if you don’t hurry! You don’t need to worry about your tie, I can fix it if you’re having trouble!” Kit saw her hands shake the slightest bit and marveled at himself for noticing something so small. Livvy was fidgety, a side that Kit never saw in her. Maybe being dressed so nicely made her uncomfortable- Kit would definitely be able to agree. But, at least her clothes fit her right. Looking again at her body, he concluded that she had no reason to be nervous about appearing as anything other than godlike in her attractiveness.

Kit knew that he looked like a mess. He knew that he looked small in Ty’s clothes and unprofessional with his golden hair gone awry without any sort of gel or comb to tame it. It could’ve been worse, he thought, but when Ty began descending from the heavens looking the way he did, Kit was proven wrong.

Tiberius always looked well put together, even in his usual sweats and hoodies. But now he was in a black suit with tiny accents of gold that seemed to guide all eyes in the room to him. He filled it out quite well, only making Kit feel worse about his lack of muscle. Ty’s usually wild hair was slicked back against his head, making the expanse of his face visible to all who cared to look (which was Kit).

Ty was the perfect example of beauty; he had a regal elegance to him. His hands fluttered at his sides and his eyes flurried the space of the room like flakes of white in a snowglobe. He was taking in every detail of his home like something had changed and he was trying to identify what was different. Kit watched unblinking as Ty walked down the stairs gracefully; he was adjusting his golden cufflinks to where his sleeves fit better on his wrists. Kit saw them glow under Ty’s touch. He imagined that if Ty touched him with that same gentleness, he too would be glowing.

It was in that moment that he was reminded of Shakespeare’s ‘greatest work,’ (though Kit preferred Hamlet) Romeo and Juliet. More specifically, he thought of a quote from the infamous balcony scene. He remembered reading it in his ninth-grade English class, being assigned the part of not Romeo, but Benvolio. He would’ve better liked reading Tybalt or Mercutio’s parts, but it was better than nothing.

Anyways, what Kit remembered was Romeo watching Juliet from the ground as she was monologuing. The things that he said about her and her beauty never struck Kit as meaningful or sweet, but after seeing Ty he was put in that perspective. The line that he recalled was of Romeo wishing that he was Juliet’s hand so that he might get the chance to touch her face. Although in that moment, Kit wanted to be Ty’s hand so that he could touch Ty’s hands- they were slender and his fingers were long, perfect for playing the piano.

“Oh wow,” Livvy gushed, and Kit was once again aware of her presence. “I didn’t even know Julian was capable of making anyone look like that! He’s usually not one for dressing up at all,” She addressed this to Kit, and he had no idea that she even knew he was there. He was about to ask who exactly she was referring to when she took him by the arm and pulled him close to her.

Kit didn’t have the biggest affinity for girls after meeting Ty (he still liked them of course, but he just found that he didn’t notice their charms and beauty as much as before, since he was busy hanging out with Ty), but that didn’t keep his sister from completely catching him off guard with her feminine wiles every so often. She was incessantly good at it, too- and just always had to tease Kit with her closeness and delicate touching. He knew better than to assume that she didn’t know what she was doing, but he still appreciated the attention, though not as much as he did with Ty.

There were rare times when he and Ty would be in situations that made his face red and his voice shaky- even more so than with Livia. For example, Ty would sometimes invite Kit to his room to keep him company whenever he did research or just read for pleasure. He would call Kit over, allowing him to look over his shoulder to see a certain passage or word choice and help him decipher it or just admire it together. However, Kit would be completely tongue-tied nearly every time he got that close to Ty. All the while, Ty would be completely unaware of Kit’s budding love and rosy cheeks.

“You’ve got something in your hair, Kit,” Livvy dragged him back from the pleasant moments in his head. She was digging around in his curls with a thin-fingered hand (just like Ty’s, only darker and more feminine). He flinched as she did, his tender scalp made to tingle under her digits. Kit was suddenly aware that she was one of the many people who didn’t call him Christopher, like Ty did. In a way, he liked that people used the name he knew better- it made him feel just a bit more confident about his identity to call himself Kit instead of Christopher Jonathan. Something about that name was so frightening to him, whether it was the change from the norm or its reputation that he had to uphold, he didn’t know.

Livvy had tugged a fragment of a leaf out of Kit’s hair by the time Ty was down the stairs and with his group again. He wasn’t speaking, just watching Kit and his sister interact with each other like it was the most interesting thing he’d seen all day.

Ty didn’t look at Kit with any sort of dissatisfaction when he saw it was his clothes that Kit was wearing. In fact, he thought that it was nice when Kit wore his clothes (it was often, since Kit didn’t have very many clothes of his own at the Institute). He didn’t exactly know why it made his heart flip like it did, but it wasn’t an awful feeling. He enjoyed the warmth that his body supplied whenever he could only see half of Kit’s hands because of the sleeves on his shirt.

“Oh, I almost forgot. Here, Ty,” Livia handed him his shoes with her trademark smile. He accepted them gratefully, wondering how they even got to her in the first case. He remembered them being in his room but apparently he was mistaken. “I’ve gotta go see Emma about my ‘makeup,’ and hopefully convince her that I don’t need any, so I’ll see you two later.”

She flounced off, her smile seemingly more wicked than before. He sat on the last step of the stairs, putting on his socks and shoes as he pondered her words. Ty already recognized the obvious deceit in her voice but decided not to comment. He wouldn’t spoil his twin’s fun, no matter if he was at the center of the joke or not.

Whenever Livvy connived, she was a force to be reckoned with. Ty could remember times of having to distract her from committing crimes in the for of practical jokes and straight up humiliation of others. He thought some of them funny right along with her, but most of his support was just to make her happy. But he almost didn’t just follow her guidance with this plan.

This joke in particular could end in disaster and only disaster.

Ty didn’t like the thought of this going wrong, as Julian had predicted. Livia seemed clouded by the idea of it going correctly and Emma told a few jokes about it at first, but went right along with the plan after that.

He remembered his conversation with his brother as he was getting him ready.

Ty had been seated in front of the mirror, hands fidgeting restlessly in his lap. He was indeed very nervous for the events to come. Julian was up and moving all around him, his hands and a comb in his hair. Ty didn’t have to see him or hear him to know where he was, and he didn’t have to know where he was at all.

“I don’t care that it’s boys,” Julian had said, running a comb through Ty’s hair with gel lodged in its bristles. “It being boys is fine and well and good.” He was being gentle when touching Ty as he usually was, but the sound of his words felt like they were leading to something less comforting and kind. “But it’s just- why does it have to be him? Kit is not a good influence, and he’s practically related to us now since he lives here, so what if something goes wrong? Do you think he’d-”

“What would happen,” Ty remembered feeling the words rolling out of his mouth before he was ready to hear them in his head, “if something went wrong with Emma? She’s practically related to all of us, Jules. If there were a problem between you and you decided to break up, would that be the end of our friendship with her as well?” He was being more bold than he could give himself credit for. This was all Kit’s ‘bad’ influence, he thought, teaching him to be more direct with adults about what he wanted. Ty always admired that in Kit. “I want to take the same chance that you’re taking with Emma, because I see how happy you are together and I know that just being around Kit now- as friends- makes me that happy.”

Out of all the (very few) moments Ty saw Julian falter, that might’ve taken the cake. He looked absolutely torn between his quest to keep Ty safe from the world and his quest to let Ty find happiness. He had been biting his lip, still combing Ty’s hair back. “I want you to be happy, you know that much, Ty. I just want you to be happy, no matter what that looks like for you. I want you to feel safe and comfortable in whatever situation you end up.”

“I know that you’re worried,” Ty said, softer than before. “I’m scared, too. I’m scared that he’ll think I’m crazy or just unappealing. And I’m scared that he won’t even like boys- and I’m scared that he likes Livvy.” He couldn’t even name the silent contempt he felt when he saw Kit stare dumbly at his twin sister. But seeing him attracted to someone else was made worthwhile when compared the swell of his heart when Kit smiled at him. “But I’ve never felt anything as amazing as when he touches me or looks at me. It’s different than with all of you. It feels like my heart is on fire and I can’t help but think that’s more than friendship.” _So that’s why I’m taking this risk_.

Ty was turned to look at Julian then, and he saw the tender smile that changed his brother’s entire mood. “You’re gonna do just fine, Ty.” He didn’t leave any room for error. Ty felt a bit more confident after that conversation.

After Ty had left and reunited with Kit, he found himself even more unsettled than before. He would have been naive to assume that this night would be easy, but merely seeing Kit made him jittery.

It was recently that Ty realized his growing attraction to the other boy. It was as if he woke up one day and saw Kit in a completely different light. Suddenly he was all soft touches, pretty hair and fierce loyalty when before he had been all of those things but with an added foolishness to the mix. When Ty came to the conclusion that he liked Kit, he found that his hands would move more when he was around him, or his eyes would linger on Kit’s for just a moment longer than with others that he knew- he wanted to know why Kit’s brilliant blue eyes were so eager to see everything.

Speaking of Kit’s eyes, Ty could feel them on him from his place on the stairs. His fingertips pressed uselessly at the rigid pattern of his socks. He hoped to come to understand it as he wanted to with Kit. Said boy sat next to him, pressing a satiny hand to Ty’s arm- it wasn’t unwelcome, just unexpected. He shivered.

“Ty, are you okay?” Kit asked, voice unreadable. Ty couldn’t look at him. If he did, he would ruin everything by saying it all too soon. They hadn’t even left the Institute yet, hadn’t had their first dance and so on. Ty hadn’t done anything to convince Kit that any of this was a good idea.

Ty didn’t pull away from his grasp, “I’m okay, Christopher.” He spoke slow and kind like he was snow on Kit’s windowsill on a particularly cold night, but that wasn’t a good enough description of him. Kit turned his brain upside down for the right words, but very few came to mind. All he thought was that Ty was the muted sunlight of spring and autumn, not as intense as other seasons’, but just bright enough to encapture you completely in its loveliness. “We should be going- to check on Livvy.” Ty seemed to catch himself from saying something; Kit didn’t know what exactly he would say besides that. He rose from the stairs, and Kit followed him with the same intent on seeing Livia.

Destroying the moment, Ty’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He yanked it from its confinement in the front pocket of his unbuttoned suit jacket, knowing exactly what was happening. He had received a text from Livvy, telling him that she couldn’t make the event because of an ‘unexpected’ onslaught of womanly issues. Livvy informed Ty ahead of time that this was not true, so he had no reason to be alarmed. She implemented this into the plan because Kit naturally would not want to ask questions about it, thus making her disappearance an easy feat. Easier for Ty to tell Kit how he felt without any disruption of his plans. Every factor had to be mulled over- Ty spent countless nights doing just that.

As Ty pulled out his phone, Kit got a glimpse inside his pocket. He didn’t expect anything besides his earphones, all tied in neatly inordinate knots. He was granted that exact sight.

Ty sighed, and Kit’s eyes snapped from his pocket to his face. It looked like something was troubling him.

Kit didn’t want to notice how… _lovely_ Ty looked when he was troubled. He didn’t want to notice Ty’s beautiful face because it would distract him from asking what was wrong, but he just couldn’t help himself. Ty’s bottom lip was rolled plump and pink between his teeth, and his thick eyebrows were knitted together. His steely eyes were fixed on the screen of his phone, alight with its glow and the embers of worry.

“What’s up?” Kit said, rather unhelpfully. “Is something wrong?”

Ty sighed one more time, and Kit saw a bit of tension roll down his shoulders. “Everything is fine. Livvy won’t be able to come with us, though. She says that her uterus might stab her from the inside.” His tone had its usual evenness to it, despite his words being far from anything he would ever say in a normal situation.

Ty wasn’t pleased with the flurry of emotions that passed over Kit’s face, none of them suited him. The expression Ty thought looked the best on Kit was either a blinding smile or a quiet pondering. “Um, alright.” He said lamely. His eyes were wide, his light eyebrows almost at his hairline.

Kit never once in his life thought that he would get the confusing pleasure of hearing Ty’s deep voice say the word ‘uterus.’ It was strange, but not the strangest. Hearing Tiberius say every fathomable word in the English language (and possibly Latin, since he seemed to know a bit of it) was a dream that Kit wanted to come true at every possible opportunity.

“So then- Livvy’s not coming?”

Ty shook his head. A tiny piece of his hair fell loose over his forehead. Kit was near the point of standing on his toes to brush it back into place. “She’s not.”

Kit tried to deny the rush of positive feelings that fled over him. “And that’s okay?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Ty had put his phone back in his pocket, but his hand lingered there. Kit assumed that he was holding his tangled headphone cords in between his fingers.

“Well-” Kit was cut off by the sound of a car horn piping and squealing for them.

  
Julian knew that something bad would happen. Here they were, in a nearly endless amount of traffic, cooped up in a tiny car. Ty and Kit were in the back seat, which made him even more perturbed. He couldn’t just stop driving and watch their movements, even if he was concerned about what they were up to. Even though he was worried, he knew that next to nothing would happen. Ty was an innocent -yet terrifyingly curious- boy, while Kit was oblivious, extremely respectful of Ty’s boundaries, and terrified of Julian’s wrath.

“We might be a little later than expected…” He said hesitantly, hoping the change wouldn’t upset Ty. He knew that his younger brother was mature, but that didn’t mean something like this wouldn’t put a damper on his night. Ty had planned this extensively with Livvy, no matter how much he tried to say it was all her.

In the rearview mirror, Julian saw Ty tense, but he soon returned to his normal calm when Kit reassured him quietly.

“It’s not like the demons will disappear, Ty. It’ll be fine,” he whispered, and Ty’s lips curved into a hard frown. _So he hasn’t told him yet_ , Julian thought. He felt a tiny smirk on his face as he gripped the steering wheel. He would tell him eventually, and then everything would work out.

It was unusual to see Ty worried. Kit, just by looking at his tense expression, felt himself get a bit worried as well. Ty’s emotions were always powerful and infectious. When Ty was happy, Kit’s heart soared higher than the clouds. When he was even the slightest bit sad, Kit felt his resolve for tear prevention being torn to shreds. And whenever Ty was thinking, Kit felt the same sort of introspective buzz of thought go through his brain.

He took a deep breath. Ty was all the way on the other edge of the car, pressing his hand onto the window. He traced the places where it was cracked with his tender fingertips. Kit wanted to do something to make him less stressed, he wanted to help him out somehow. He thought of Livvy, always touching him with a strong grip to help him ground himself.

Kit held out his right hand in the negative space between them, “Ty, it’s okay. Nothing bad is going to happen.” He watched as Tiberius took it into his left with a shiver. He wasn’t shaking, per say, he was just moving in the way that he always did- fast, sharp and precise in Kit’s palm. Kit squeezed Ty’s hand, sure of himself that this would help, yet so unsure about what he was helping with. He rubbed his fingers over Ty’s knuckles firmly.

Ty visibly relaxed, leaning back in his seat instead of sitting straight as an arrow. He was looking better already, Kit thought.

The rest of the ride to the school was uneventful, just as Ty had hoped for. Sure, they were a little late, but overall it didn’t affect his plans. He could make up for the lost time by talking just a bit faster or being a bit more forward.

As they had parked, Julian made sure that they had their tickets (purchased beforehand courtesy of Livvy, with Julian’s money) and were ready for the ‘intel gathering.’ The parking lot was dotted with a few more cars of various sizes and color, though no one quite cared about that.

“Alright, remember that if anything happens, you just call me. Ty, that means you need to keep your phone on and make sure it doesn’t die.” Julian addressed, “I can be up here in 15 minutes if you need me. Or should I just wait out here? It’s good to have a getaway vehicle on standby since we’re here for-”

“Jules, it will be fine,” Ty spoke softly, but his voice sounded strangely demanding to Kit. Like he was affirming Julian and not the other way around.

Julian stopped short in his rant. His features glazed over with an emotion that Kit didn’t know the name of. He looked almost relieved. “You’re right. You’re right, Ty. Go on then, and do your best tonight.” Kit felt bad for listening since this wasn’t his conversation.

Ty felt himself begin to smile, despite all the odds. Though he was nervous and all on his own in this, he knew that Julian was at least trying to support his decision. Nothing could make him happier than that.

Kit watched as Ty stepped out of the car just after him, and the doors each sang a brief song of clattering as they were closed. Kit didn’t listen to this, his attention being drawn to the sky. He found that the sunset was more interesting than the ideas about the night facing them. He provided his phone a quick glance to know the time. It was around 5:30, a little too early for a sunset, Kit thought.

He was amazed by the oranges and reds of the stratosphere, to say the least. But Kit believed that some of the most beautiful sights didn’t need color to appear lovely- his beliefs being reflected directly in the form of Ty. Kit locked his sights on him as they wandered toward an open door at the school’s side. They were told by their primary researcher (Livvy) that the dance was supposed to be taking place in the school’s cafeteria, so that was where they were headed in such haste.

Kit- not having been on many missions before that- wasn’t feeling very confident in his position. “Are you completely sure about this, Ty? Without Livvy, this just feels-” He paused uselessly, “will you be okay without her?”

“I have my headphones. It won’t be a problem,” his voice was clear-cut and firm- he was stubborn, Kit had heard this from his family members. They were nearly at the entrance when Ty placed one earbud in his ear, beginning his calming classical playlist to keep himself from breathing too fast.

They were greeted by two female staff members at the door, who asked for their tickets and a couple of smiles. Kit obliged with a smirk- like how dare they ask him to smile on Valentine’s day when he didn’t have a date to speak of- while Ty preferred not to accommodate them. They didn’t assume much and allowed the pair to step through a set of sheer pink and red curtains hanging from the space between two unimpressively sized columns, leading from that tiny hallway into the cafeteria.

Intimate was a word that reflected the exact vibe that the main room gave to Kit. The glow of candles off-put his mood of unnecessary uptightness.

There were tenderly shining stringed lights in a tightly wound cluster that hung from the ceiling in the center of the room, stretching out to wrap themselves around each pillar- there were about seven, arranged in a circular fashion, even though the room was rectangular. Each of the pillars was adorned with numerous heart-shaped sticky notes telling the reader to appreciate the people they loved and encouraging them to love themselves. In the center space of the columns, there was a practically empty marble floor -clearly meant for dancing- with antsy couples off to the side. They enviously eyed its easy, playful light, lacking the courage to try a dance with their respective partners. These couples were either seated at the various tables between each pillar or standing, leaning on them.

But there were people off to the sides of the room, completely separated from the circle crowd and gathered by the large windows on nearly every wall. They weren’t all stained glass, but there were flecks of color in them as Kit saw the sun set in the westernmost windows.

Kit felt suddenly jealous of the people that came together, but it wasn’t like he was denouncing Ty’s company (Kit always enjoyed being with Ty). He simply wished that he could be there with someone who wanted to kiss him or hold his hand- it was impossible since his only candidate wasn’t really interested, but nice to imagine.

“So,” he said absently, “when will all the demon-hunting begin?”

Ty sucked in a breath. He knew that he’d need to fess up eventually, but he didn’t think it would happen as soon as they walked in! “It won’t.” He felt his hands and toes wiggle in protest at the thought of laying himself bare at Kit’s feet- it went against his small stash of pride, and could expose him to a world of hurt. The symphony of his headphones and the soft piano and drums of the room coiled inside his head, into a dance of swirling emotions. He could never replicate the sensation of Kit’s form beside him lulling gently to the outward music, talking and talking about demons but not seeing the bigger picture of this whole night.

Kit sent a curious glance his way, and it made Ty want to quell his each and every thought.

He wanted to be cocky and say what Kit said to him when they first met. When Ty only knew that he could potentially be a threat to Emma and Julian- when Ty knew nothing about him. He wanted to have the same challenge that Kit’s voice had when he said those words: “ _Figure it out._ ” But that wasn’t something that made sense for him to do, much less was it something that interested him. It was better suited to Kit’s irreplaceable personality, anyways.

“Oh yeah,” Kit realized too late that this was just an intelligence gathering grind. “Okay, then when do we start taking notes about demons disguised as people? ‘Cause I’m a great people watcher,” he claimed, trying to find the odd person out in this situation, but failing to do so right away. This was just a normal high school dance, if not for the higher class, considering the size of the room and decorations. His eyes wandered around as he was talking, not even certain that Ty was hearing him.

They had perched themselves by a deserted pillar, Kit surveying the grounds and yapping away as Ty worked himself up for the big moment. “They usually aren’t afraid of being caught, I think,” he was grateful for something else to talk about. “But there’s none here.”

Kit arched a brow, turning fully toward Ty. “How do you know?”

Ty shrugged, at a loss for words. While it wasn’t too unbelievable that he didn’t know what to say (usually his emotions were too difficult to put into words), he knew that sometime he would have to say something of meaning, and make Kit understand.

He realized that he had no better opportunity than this. Being seen by a few people that he didn’t know would be better than being possibly humiliated in front of his siblings.

“Christopher,” he felt the name fall out of his mouth with a sense of heaviness. “I don’t want you to talk right now.” The words were rude sounding, but he knew that Kit would understand. “Just listen.” He willed away the thought of all the eyes in the room, including Kit’s, on him the moment he made a mistake. He didn’t want Kit to look at him if that was why.

Kit blinked up at him questioningly, and Ty’s hand flew over his own eyes. He decided it would be better if he was the one not looking. With his music in his ears and his eyes covered, he was beginning to regain control, though it was a long way away from his grasp. After a long silence of steadying his nerves, Ty was ready as his mind would allow him to be- which meant that he wasn’t ready at all.

“This mission isn’t real,” He finally admitted, “I planned it so that I could go somewhere with you, because I wanted us to spend time together without everyone else around.” His pulse rattled in his ears as his back hit the pillar behind him. Ty was grateful once again for a solid surface to hold him up as his ankles shook steadily.

He began speaking once more, breath halting yet quickening through his lungs. “And before you ask about Livvy, she was part of this plan. And Jules and Emma. We all were. They supported me through this, so that I could tell you-” His voice was wearing thin, and he felt himself begin to sweat. He felt the cool surface of the pillar under his fingertips, the bumpy drywall giving him a sense that this wasn’t a dream- this was him telling Kit how he felt. His fingers danced along it, mixing that feeling with the stark fabric of his jacket whenever his hand brushed his back.

“This was so that I could tell you that I really appreciate you. No, that’s not it-” The words came at him like stones, hurting his throat and his brain. “It was to say that like you,” He said tirelessly, hoping the nervous rasp of his voice wasn’t too obvious. “I don’t know when or why this happened, all I know is that I want to be around you and that I like to look at you and talk to you.

“It’s annoying not to know about the things happening to me, so I wanted to ask you if it’s just me feeling this way. I feel so different around you than with every other person in my life,” Ty knew that he was being wordy and unnecessary in his explanation of his feelings, but the more he talked, the more comfortable he became. “I don’t like not being able to describe it.

“It’s not a safe feeling. It’s as if someone is shouting at me or making me stay still. It hurts my body and my brain; and when you make me feel that, I want to run away,” Kit found the words to be more interesting than anything that could’ve been happening around them. The whole world could’ve come crashing down right then, and Kit wouldn’t care in the least. The world could do Ty a favor by letting him finish- she owed him that much.

Ty continued on, and Kit had never heard him speak that much in his entire time knowing him, “But I am a Shadowhunter, and we don’t run.”

Ty experimentally removed his hand from his eyes, not entirely shocked by Kit’s willing silence. What he saw was something he hadn’t accounted for at all.

Kit was grinning wildly. His face was a bright red and he looked uncharacteristically giddy. Ty’s heart exploded with rushing blood. He’d expected Kit to be disgusted with him for even thinking such things, but he seemed more than pleased. “Tiberius Nero Blackthorn, you are so brave,” He said, smile never faltering, “And you and your lovely sister scheme too much, but that doesn’t retract from how amazing you both are.” Ty didn’t expect much of anything else from Kit- it was a typical response of his to deflect comments like that.

“But you and she are a different kind of amazing,” Kit continued, “She’s kind and beautiful and full of energy, but I’m more attracted to your quiet way of caring about people. You’re so wonderful to be around, and I really like you. I’ve liked you from the moment I saw you when you were holding a knife to my throat.

“And it’s not like you to be this vocal about your feelings, so I know that this is really something that’s important to you,” Kit’s hands were now moving restlessly at his sides, much like Ty’s, and Ty knew exactly what he wanted before he asked. “Would it be okay if I hugged you? Or, would that be too much right now?”

Ty felt a rush of relief when he realized that he wasn’t correct in his hunch about Kit’s reaction. The fear of doing everything wrong slowly began to fade away, leaving only that last question in the air between them. Ty placed a hand on Kit’s shoulder- Kit took it as his way of saying, “Yes, you may, but please let me calm down first,”- and tried to look Kit in his eyes. It wasn’t as comforting and quiet as he thought since Kit was so happy about this confession. But he felt that intense joyful energy work on him, and he kept getting braver from it.

Kit’s heart dropped into his stomach as Ty pulled him in, one hand hard on his back and the other awkwardly at his side. Of course, Ty initiating the contact was a big surprise to Kit. He wasn’t a person who took touching lightly, Kit had observed. He let only people he was close to touch him without asking (Like Livvy), completely rejecting those who hadn’t earned his trust. Kit, up until that point, thought himself to be someone who hadn’t worked hard enough for this trust but he was clearly wrong. Either way he was satisfied with being touched by Ty.

Ty’s lungs seized as Kit’s hands wandered to his upper back, pressing him closer. Kit’s head was on his shoulder, neck craned at a strange angle so as to not overwhelm Ty with the sight of his face and the feel of his touch at the same time. But Ty was overwhelmed nonetheless at the tickling sensation of Kit’s breath on his neck. He was surrounded by Kit on all sides and it was exactly what he wanted- what he had dreamed of in the nights before this plan came to fruition. He shivered closer into Kit’s touch, moving his free hand to the back of Kit’s head, resting his chin in the blonde below him.

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” Kit mumbled, aligning his ear with the bottom of Ty’s neck. The beating of his heart was so loud and confident that Kit’s pulse followed the same pattern after a few syncing seconds.

Ty sighed, knowing this explanation was imminent. “It doesn’t matter now,” he whispered, inhaling the smell of Kit, Kit, _Kit_. It was all musky sweat and dust. Ty wasn’t disappointed, he was pleased to even be this close. It wasn’t enough to block out the other sights and sounds of the chattery room, but it was more than pleasing to know that Kit was breathing on him, touching him and talking to him without any sort of boundary between them.

Kit was beginning to feel his face heat. “So… You like me? Like, _like_ me?”

“If that’s what it’s called, yes. I like like you.” Ty said practically, releasing his hold on Kit finally. He looked at Kit’s flushed face with a new sense of himself. He’d just confessed to someone- and a boy, no less. “I never thought this would happen.”

“Trust me, I never thought it would, either.” Kit said. His voice wasn’t the center of Ty’s world anymore as it was drowned out by a soft song he didn’t know playing over the speakers. “That reminds me,” He stole a look at Ty, his voice shifting to a more playful tone. “The floor just so happens to be very empty. Would you care to join me in a dance?”

Ty began to shake his head, “I don’t know how to dance-”

“Neither do I, and it looks like the others here don’t know how. We’ll just have to show them how it’s done,” Kit smirked at Ty. He found his heart jumping around in his chest as he took Kit’s hand in his own, reluctantly allowing himself to be led out onto the dance floor.

They were in the middle of it all as the drums kicked in with the might of a tiny bee, rocking the room into a gentle rhythm. The lights shone down on them from above, and the people looked. Ty felt their eyes on him but he wasn’t afraid. Kit took his hands and put them on his waist.

“You want me to lead?” Ty asked without confusion, his fingers digging into the place where Kit directed them to be. Kit wasn’t very built, but Ty didn’t feel very much fat on him, either. He was smaller than Ty, but not by too much. If Ty ever thought about what a normal 15-year-old boy looked like -instead of the Shadowhunters that he saw too much of,- the image of Kit would’ve been there. “That’s not a good idea, I’ll step on your feet and make you fall.”

“You’re taller,” Kit nudged him as he placed his own hands on Ty’s shoulders. “And we can figure this out together. It won’t matter if you make me fall, I’ll still like you just the same.” Kit inhaled sharply, staying true to his position as the follower. Ty followed suit in his leading position and they began to dance.

At first they awkwardly swayed to the music with all of those people watching them with pained expressions- they were uncomfortable for their sake. But as Ty felt more and more at ease, he let his form loosen from its stiff confines, if only a little. He stared at his and Kit’s feet, making certain not to pummel Kit’s toes as he moved with little sureness. Kit was being very patient with him, stepping just in time with his uncertain movements. He was a liar, and had danced like this before.

There was an eager party that joined them out on the dance floor after a few minutes. A pair of ladies mixed together like fire, chasing each other in their boneless moves and pulling each other closer than Kit and Ty were willing to get. They giggled and smiled endlessly. One was tawny-haired, the other had a head of brown that faded to a deep purple. They both seemed to be having fun, swishing and pulling at each other's dresses and toying with each others hair.

Kit decided to follow their lead, stepping into Ty’s space with a tentative smile. He was trying to be gentle with the intrusion, moving one hand to Ty’s chest instead of the mechanical amenity of having both on his shoulders. He felt Ty’s heart lose control at this, and grinned on, not making an effort to startle him any further. “You can do this,” He mumbled, more to himself than to his partner.

Ty was going to hyperventilate if this went on any further. While everything was relatively quiet inside the room, his senses were overloaded with it all. The lights, sound and music were right at the beginning point of being too much for his eyes and ears to handle. His heart was pounding and he was hot in his jacket, sweating too much for comfort. Ty’s head felt like it would explode with thoughts and feelings- it wasn't unable to contain them all. It was like his earphones did nothing to prevent the heat building in his head.

Kit’s shoulders rose and fell as he looked up at Ty one last time. Ty knew that he felt and saw everything on his face and in his eyes, down to the depths of his heart and the silent corners of his brain. Kit was good at reading people like that. “I think we should take a little break. I’m feeling a little stuffy in here, you know?” Kit smiled easily, like he was just suggesting something small and insignificant to Ty. Like he didn’t know about Ty’s imminent panic attack.

Kit saw as Ty’s mood regressed from terribly flustered to a slim calm. They were no longer standing together as Ty allowed himself to be pulled off the dance floor. They weaved through dancing couples with ease with Kit’s hand was on Ty’s wrist, his grip infallibly tight, but not painful. Ty had always appreciated Kit’s ability to connect with him without being like people he didn’t know- Kit understood him and his needs, for the most part. There were times when Kit had to ask Ty about what he needed, and that was okay. No one could ever know about those things at every point in time; right then he didn’t even know what was best for himself.

With a quick goodbye to the ladies near the side door, Kit and Ty emerged into the dark night.

Ty watched Kit very carefully as they paced down the concrete path to the parking lot, noticing every tiny move that he made. There wasn’t very many to observe, which was fine with him. He felt like he would burst if he had to take in any more information.

It wasn’t that the sight of the night sky made Kit braver- it just inspired him to be like the stars, bright and present in every moment. There was a broad swipe of navy blue paint where baby blue usually sat tall, making the white glow of stars and nearby planets that much more candescent when compared to the dull clouds that covered them all the time. Not to mention the sun, who stole most of their rightfully deserved attention during the day, blocking out their equally important light.

There were few trees on the grounds, but Kit appreciated every one of them. The wind was a cooling sensation on Kit’s sweaty form, making certain that he felt well in these hard circumstances.

“Are you okay, Ty?” Kit asked slowly, making sure to modulate his voice to where it wouldn’t add to the stress of Ty’s mood. He was still holding Ty’s thin wrist as they made their way into grass and past the few trees of the grounds, near a bench near the parking lot. It was old and wooden, not the plastic Kit was used to in public parks he visited back when he was still with his father.

Ty didn’t respond until they were both seated, “That wasn’t in the plan.” He sighed and his whole face fell. “Not what I wanted to happen.” His head was suddenly in his hands, which was a forceful way of removing Kit’s hand from his body. Kit wasn’t phased- he didn’t think the gesture rude. Ty tore the bud of his earphone from his ear and a near scoff came with it. Kit decided to try to diffuse the situation before Ty was taken too far.

“Plans don’t always go right,” was the first thing Kit said, and he felt the need to add more, “It’s okay. We’re both still here, and at least it’s nice outside.” He said uselessly.

Ty looked at him the way one looks at someone when their pride is insulted, but his features softened after locking eyes with Kit for a mere second. “You’re right,” He exhaled. His hands still shook and he was still breathing hard, but he seemed a little calmer. “But that doesn’t change what’s already happened.

“This was supposed to be perfect,” he was rambling now, something that happened when he was particularly stressed- “I wasn’t supposed to do this.”

Kit felt unnerved by the way Ty was speaking about himself- like these things were things that could be repressed and were an inconvenience. “Ty, don’t talk that way- this isn’t your fault at all. How were you supposed to plan for something like this?” He turned his body to face Ty’s and knew that he looked less comforting than he meant to.

“That’s my whole life, Kit!” Ty was shouting now, his gaze fiercely moving and hands fluttering about on his body, his face, legs and middle. It took a moment for Kit to realize that Ty hadn’t called him Christopher, which felt like a compliment and an insult at the same time. It was a nice sound, but not so much when Ty said it in a raised voice, “I can’t go anywhere without planning for things like this and yet they still get to me.” He quieted as quickly as he started yelling.

  
Kit spared a full look at him. Ty was glowing in the moonlight- moving just as he always was, with the same restlessness that made Kit’s stomach turn whenever it bared its fangs. He was a work of art that was crumbling under stress and more emotions than he could handle. He dared his heart and brain to understand the situations Ty faced everyday that weren’t hard for Kit, natural, even.

Though Ty was (probably not) waiting for his response, Kit didn’t dare speak. He just stared at Ty, who was in and out of looking back at him between movements and hard breathing. There was nothing beautiful about a meltdown or a panic attack, it was all fear and anguish of the mind and heart. Kit knew this, and he knew that it wasn’t a good idea to just sit and watch as Ty progressed to that point. He already knew what needed to be done, so now there was the task of actually doing it.

Kit leaned over and placed a stony hand on Ty’s shoulder. He blinked like a deer in the headlights- spooked and confused. His silver gray gaze flicked on and around Kit like grey fire in a royal way, despite his clear signs of alarm.

“Tell me,” Kit whispered to him, “What you need.”

Ty looked like he was reminded of the world’s existence around him. His worried pale face flushed with color and he didn’t seem so frenetic in his motions. “Hold me,” he said. His voice was shaking like his body and hands. He held his arms out to Kit with an inimitable grace, even as he was panicking.

That was all Kit needed to hear to metaphorically leap into action. He scooted across the bench, wrapping an arm around Ty and enveloping him in a hard side hug. His fingers were splayed around the expanse of Ty’s arm, not at all light in their touch. “You’ll be okay,” the words hung in the air like the moon, lighting Ty’s path to being able to breathe normally again. Kit lost his breath as Ty cowered against him, burying his head in his chest as his form hunched; he rattled away words that meant nothing more than just sounds coming from his mouth. He grabbed at Kit and ruffled at his shirt and his hair, quickly and evenly unfastening and fastening the two large buttons on Kit’s waistcoat- but Kit didn’t care. He would willingly look like trash if it meant that Ty could be calm and grounded.

Ty knew that he would eventually be alright, and Kit’s hold on him was comforting and familiar. A similarly comforting thought that came to him was one of the Luna moth, one of the creatures he liked to study.

He remembered that, not unlike people, the Luna moth’s sole intent in life was to mate and produce offspring; this point was further proven by the fact that the moth didn’t even eat, thus making its purpose to mate and only to mate. While this objective the moth had in common with people, Ty knew that everything humans did had a deeper layer of emotion, and had this depth to it that most animals couldn’t come to no matter how hard they tried. But Tiberius believed that animals and bugs had the capability to love and be loved just as his peers did, but they hadn’t tapped into those feeling yet.

Kit lowered his head into Ty’s downy hair, the act of doing so more delicate than he intended. Ty shivered at this, only grasping Kit tighter. It was only a matter of time before Ty’s gasps of breath slowed and his hands found a place to land- on Kit’s back, pulling him close. They still moved about, but stayed in that general area.

The pale of the moon played off of the pale of Ty’s skin, and his hair shined under its ever ephemeral light. Kit knew nothing other than this -other than Ty- in that moment. Everything else faded into nothingness as Ty stirred, looking at Kit’s face, neck and shoulders with those eyes that he adored so much.

“I know thinking about it is hard -and you don’t have to do it at all- but it helps me to calm down when I think about good things,” Kit suggested, trying his best to help Ty with his words, “so did anything good happen tonight?”

Ty looked puzzled at the confession. Kit admired the half second of Ty’s confusion as his brain worked the question. “Dancing,” He said. Kit must have smiled at this without even feeling it, because Ty had no qualms mentioning it. “You liked it, too.”

“I did,” Kit nodded, proud that Ty noticed. “Why did you like it?”

Ty thought about his answer carefully. He thought about Kit being shorter than him, about the small of Kit’s back being so near his hands, and about Kit’s blue eyes always on him, never judging or scolding for his lack of talent. While dancing with Kit was a change (Ty didn’t care for changes in routine), it was a change he was grateful for. “I’m not completely sure, yet,” he felt himself getting closer and closer to Kit, not even minding his touch anymore. “Why did you like it?” It wasn’t just an empty question- Ty was quite curious as to why Kit could enjoy such an activity.

Kit knew he was blushing, but he would go through hell itself before he admitted it. “I liked how close you got to me, even if it didn’t last long. It was new and it was scary, but I liked it.” He smiled softly to himself- knowing full well that Ty could see, “I would do it again, and hopefully it would last longer that time.”

It seemed that Ty was starting a trend of talking before he thought of the words he would say, “Then let’s.”

Kit shook his head vehemently, clearly opposed to the idea. “I don’t want you to get overwhelmed again,” He voiced, eyes alight with apprehension.

“It was loud and bright inside, and there were a lot of people,” Ty argued. He was not going to let Kit give this up because of him- it wouldn’t be the right thing to do, “It’s quiet out here. I’ll be fine. You said that yourself.”

Kit paused, “I did say that, didn’t I?” He smiled weakly.

“You did,” was Ty’s reply. He had this confident set to his shoulders, even when leaning into Kit like a tiny child would for protection. Speaking of that, Kit felt strangely tall while Ty was grabbing onto him, nuzzled into his chest. Ty looked up at him, and that was everything that was needed to make Kit cave completely.

He made a show of being hesitant, “Fine,” he sighed, letting his head fall back to look up at the sky. The moon was there, that was what he expected. Kit found more interest in the stars, though. They reminded him of Ty’s eyes, white and greyish and twinkling. He was not at all surprised when Ty was suddenly up and off of him, standing on the concrete in all of his beautiful glory.

Ty was beautiful- there was no doubt about it. He was tall and lithe with pale, marked skin; he could easily be confused as an angel without wings. Ty was the spitting image of Kit’s thoughts on Shadowhunters’ appearances- before realizing that they were as varied as the mundanes were. He was all sharp angles, serious demeanor and dark colors in the moonlight, reminding Kit of a vampire (except less undead-looking).

The wind picked up, blowing Kit’s curls into his eyes and mouth. It simply made Ty’s feathery hair flutter around him as his hands did at his sides. Kit stood next to Ty, making one more excuse, “But there’s no music for us to dance to.”

Ty shrugged in his jacket, pulling his phone out of the front pocket. He unplugged his headphones from it, and classical music spilled into the air like leaves from a tree in the autumn. “Is that okay?”

Kit felt utterly defeated in his attempts in trying not to let this happen, though he really had no need to want this to stop besides the hanging dread of Ty’s possible meltdown. “Of course.”

“Then, we can dance again,” there was not a single dubiety in his voice as he looked down at Kit with those eyes of his. They were keen and lovely, focused around Kit’s outline.

Kit didn’t feel the need to respond as a particular feeling rose in his stomach. It was hot, sticky and sweet, like warm honey. It reminded him of Ty’s description of how he felt earlier that evening. But with Ty, this feeling seemed more like a hindrance than a benefit, or more of a fear than an object of wonder. Kit could understand feelings like that- sometimes he couldn’t bring himself to watch the Blackthorns bond because it only reminded him of the family that he never got to have, with his absent mother and emotionally distant father.

Ty dared a step closer to Kit, initiating the touch between them. He placed a hand on Kit’s waist just as he did before, fingers digging in to find a familiar set of grooves. Kit grinned with uncertainty as he planted one hand on Ty’s shoulder- he joined their opposite hands in the air beside them, elbows bent outward. The position was not something that Ty had mastered, and he counted the steps of the dance along in that list.

Kit took a deep breath, stepping in and unintentionally leading Ty to step backwards. They continued on like this, invading the space and forcing each other back and forward in a dance that felt more like an uninspired fight for control.

Eventually, they loosened their style, finding their own rhythm in the music and sticking to that as they shuffled along the concrete. Nature stilled around them as they moved. Birds tried to chirp along to the melody of the orchestra and the wind whistled with them. The moon was a better spotlight than those overpowered lights inside the building. The trees casted shadows over them which made it a bit difficult to see, but it wasn’t like they were looking at anything but each other.

Kit was smiling. Ty had a feeling that this would make him happy, but he never expected that dancing with him made Kit happy enough to grin like an idiot. But even if he did look like an idiot, he was still lovely to Ty. There were times when Ty was jealous of Kit’s bright hair and eyes when compared to his darker tones, and there were times when he just wanted to observe those features of Kit’s at work. Like when he was fighting a demon, his curls would be matted to his forehead and his tender blue eyes would be sharp with murderous intent. It wasn’t just a hatred of demons that caused him to be good with a sword or throwing knives. Ty liked to watch Kit improve almost as much as he liked teaching Kit to improve himself, which was a fair amount.

Kit tried not to make it too obvious that he knew Ty was staring. He never stared at people as much as he stared around them, Kit noticed. Ty was all about observation, learning his targets to where he knew their next move before they themselves knew. Ty had always been practical and smart, but right then Kit thought he saw a different side of it.

He knew that -on the surface, at least- Ty didn’t value emotion as much as hard fact. This, along with the notion that he was somehow less of a Shadowhunter because of his overall better cognitive functions, was proven to be false with more research of Ty’s behavior around people. Kit wasn’t much for science experiments or anything like that, but studying Ty was an unconventionally interesting way to pass the time. Not that he thought Ty to be a specimen or an animal; Kit was always just enamored by Ty’s reasons for doing things- and there was a reason for every tic and fidget.

But Kit couldn’t find any reason for the way that Ty was looking at him like he was reminded of something good. Finding love or admiration in his grey eyes was as unexpected as finding a pair of weasels in his bed, cuddled up together with him watching them intently. He’d made the excuse that he was protecting them from the rain, but Kit knew better than to think that was completely true, with Ty’s ongoing penchant for small animals being a factor for that deduction.

Before Kit could ask what on his face made Ty stare, he was confronted with the steel of Ty’s eyes as he pondered his next action. Kit knew that look more than he knew his own face. It meant that something was coming, and that he should be prepared.

Ty felt a surge of bravery rush over him as he looked at Kit’s expectantly happy gaze. This sight made him want to try something a bit fancier in the routine of their bland dance. Tiberius, being only a novice to the art of dance, had seen few moves that inspired him more than a simple type of twirl. He had always wanted to try a move like that, but his only suitable dancing partner, that being Livia, had never been interested in the whole ordeal.

She had always thought training for fights to be similar to dancing, and Ty could not doubt this when he saw her fighting. Graceful and poise, she was a true dancer on the court of battle; like a prima ballerina on the tips of her toes as her saber swung through the horrific heads and bodies of demons- ichor and blood shooting out over her like roses flying onto a stage.

He took a deep breath, and all but calmly latched his right hand to Kit’s shoulder, pushing him away to prepare him for the move. Kit seemed to understand and let Ty do what he wanted with him. Ty moved his left arm out and up to accommodate for Kit’s height, trying not to fall out of step as Kit turned under it and spun back into position with the grace of an angel.

They were definitely offbeat with the music emanating from his phone’s inadequate speakers, but that didn’t mean that Ty wasn’t proud of having done it.

When Ty looked at Kit’s face for reassurance, he was beaming. It was a kind, wide smile that made his heart thump ceaselessly. But Ty knew better than not to look in his eyes. There he saw the edge of challenge that brewed stronger and stronger. _What else can you do?_ Ty, in a reckless gesture, snaked his hand down from Kit’s waist to his lower back, just as he wanted to when they were inside. Kit’s eyes widened at this, but he didn’t seem all too disquieted to Ty.

Kit tried to hide his suddenly hot face as their moves became a bit faster. They were somehow managing to not stomp all over each other's feet as their tempo increased. The music, still playing the same classical song on a loop, was unsynced to their dancing. Kit knew this entire situation was a miracle -completely one of a kind- so he tried not to close his eyes, as to not let this once in a lifetime chance slip by unnoticed.

As he made the vow to himself about not forgetting this moment, Kit found that Ty was staring intently at him, in his eyes for a few seconds then away and then back again. It continued on like this and Kit knew that this specific gesture had been rehearsed. The basics of flirting had been taught to Ty by someone of whom he did not know. They were a lot closer than before, and Kit could feel Ty’s breath on his face.

“Livvy used to tell me about how she’s always wanted to kiss someone. I told her it would be just like when she kisses Tavvy or Jules, but I think I was wrong,” Ty said. He was touching Kit’s back and their opposite hands were together, the places burned Kit’s skin like hot metal. His touch wasn’t soft like Kit thought it would be. Ty wasn’t fond of light, feathery touches. He was firm, making certain that Kit wasn’t going anywhere as they moved together fluidly like water, drawn by gravity to the moon. “May I kiss you?” It was then that Kit noticed that his touches weren’t completely still. Kit felt the less-than-gentle taps of Ty’s fingers on his back. They reminded him of the gliding presses of someone’s fingers on the neck of a violin- precise and hard where they palpated fragile notes into existence.

Kit gulped. He wasn’t expecting that to be mentioned so soon. Kit figured that it wouldn’t even be thought of for a few more months, or at least until Ty felt comfortable.

He remembered being young and thinking about relationships, about how you should always pace yourself for your partner’s needs- be ready to change things if they didn’t quite agree. He thought about how that would work with Ty, and how Ty would work with him. Would things be ‘normal?’ No, no one was normal. Every relationship worked differently since every person was different. And that wasn’t even counting the fact that they were both Shadowhunters- which only added to the lack of normalcy.

“Are you sure?”

Ty nodded too quickly. “I want to, and it’s okay if you don’t, even though it makes me feel like I’m not worthy.” He said, too honestly. “I don’t want to pressure you because Livvy said that wasn’t the way relationships worked. She made me promise not to make you do anything you don’t want to do, but I don’t think I could do that even if I wanted to. You’re too headstrong for me to force you into anything.”

Kit wasn’t surprised that Ty was being this honest- it was just what he did. And Kit didn’t usually pay too much mind to his offhand comments, but these observations about his character pulled at his heart strings like a child trying to split a taffy. “She’s right, you know.”

“I do,” he said. Ty’s nerves were all over the place. There was an irritating tic in the back of his mind that told him to just do it already and get it over with, but he defied this with his desire to make the moment special for Kit. Even though he wanted it to be quick and easy, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to kiss Kit and run away afterwards. “So, may I?”

Kit, being a bit of a delinquent, thought most bad ideas sounded like good ones. Having kissed Ty’s twin, he knew to expect inexperience, but that didn’t make the horrid idea of kissing Tiberius Blackthorn -only horrid because of consequences involving Ty’s scary older siblings, Kit didn’t actually think kissing Ty would be a bad experience- any less appealing to Kit.

Ty wasn’t the most patient person- he pegged that on his personality instead of his fortunate upbringing at the hands of his brother, Julian- so the wait for Kit’s answer was agonizing, especially since it was something that he was interested in. Despite the silences between them, they were still dancing close as ever.

Kit mulled it over in his head as he swayed on the concrete with Ty. He, after hesitating a little too much, decided on his answer. “Just tell me if anything is too much.”

Ty didn’t need to answer for Kit to know his response. He settled for a nod as their dance slowed to a stop. It was unlikely that he would even get that far, Ty had thought long before this whole ordeal- but it was somehow happening. There he was, pondering on how to get closer to Kit without spooking him, not to mention himself. His heart was pounding on at a million miles a second, leaving him to be open to any and all anxious thoughts.

Providentially, Ty did not have to worry about how he would go about kissing Kit, since Kit seemed to be the one doing the work for him. He was on his toes, moonlight making his skin and hair look darker than normal. However, his bright blue eyes still looked the same to Ty, still lovely in every way. While Ty wasn’t entirely conscious in the moment, Kit had placed both of his hands on his cheeks, pulling Ty down to meet his lips. Ty didn’t want to think about what happened next. He didn’t want to overanalyze every move that Kit made against him as they were so close. He didn't want to think about Kit’s chest flat against his, or his tiny hips adjusting to his elevated stance, so he closed his eyes as he and Kit finally connected. Underneath his eyelids, he still saw Kit. He still saw Kit’s most pleasant smile, and his laughing face. He saw Kit with sleep in his eyes and tousled hair, and he saw Kit looking fierce and ready for battle. But what stuck out most was the Kit that looked ready to kiss him and the Kit that was leaning in for it, and he suddenly felt it.

It wasn’t fireworks and bursting of flower blossoms. It wasn’t electricity buzzing through his veins like caffeine and it definitely wasn’t searing heat in his stomach. It was a gentle caress of his lips with those of Kit’s- chapped and barely cracked in some places, which he minded none too much of- and it was a feeling that he focused on as it made his heart flutter like his fingers on Kit’s back; they were fervent and sharp with precision that he didn’t know he had. He didn’t think about moving; he didn’t think about breathing or even about his blood moving to his face where Kit held him close against his smaller body, hot breath from his nose licking around Ty’s mouth where he was connected with him.

If Ty had to use words to describe what it was to him, he would say something along the lines of soft, and slow. Being frantic and needy was not what he wanted in this situation- which seemed to be the same case with Kit since he wasn’t all too interested in making the kiss any deeper than on the outside edges of Ty’s lips.

Kit was melting. His poor brain and heart were working far too fast for him to handle. It was apparent to him that Ty had never kissed anyone, but he never thought that Ty wouldn’t, in the very least, participate. Kit tried to have some patience, tried to take into account Ty’s inexperience, but the anxiety of his disapproval was eating at Kit like termites attacked a piece of damp wood.

But amidst the fear of Ty disliking the attempt, there was a silver lining. Kit nearly gasped against Ty’s mouth as he noticed it. Ty wasn’t making any effort to pull away.

While that sounded like a given for most people, Ty would usually overturn unwanted touches with a tug of his hand out of their grasp or a full step back. What was evident to Kit was that Ty was not only refusing to move away, he was also still holding the small of Kit’s back like his entire life depended on it.

Kit could safely say that he was dazed. There were very few things that could bring him to that level of thought loss- he was too focused on kissing Ty to rattle them off. He forgot the world around him and the ground underneath him as Ty’s hands moved up onto his shoulders and into his hair, pulling him closer. Kit’s ears popped like he was descending into the depths of the ocean.

It was as if Kit forgot that he had to hold himself back as he meekly flicked his tongue over Ty’s bottom lip. It tasted of salt, like sweat or tears. It was not a bad taste on him. Before Kit even knew what to think, Ty was backing away from him like he was on fire, eyes wide and confused.

“Kit,” He started, stare incredulous. “You-”

“I’m sorry, Ty-” Kit interrupted, but his explanation for his actions was cut short by Ty leaning in of his own accord to plant a few tiny kisses on his chin, cheeks and forehead- like he was not yet prepared to take to Kit’s lips himself.

Kit moved his hands from Ty’s face to hook behind his neck, allowing him to come in even closer. He thought it extremely innocent and sweet that Ty was nervous about kissing his mouth, and he was absolutely bewitched by the soft feeling of Ty’s lips on his face.

If there was ever a moment when Tiberius considered himself to be a victim of addiction, this would have been it. He was stunned by his closeness to Kit, unwilling to let that feeling go because of the way it worked on his nerves. Sure, he was still agitated, but after sharing that intimate first kiss with Kit he was unanticipatedly overcome with valiance.

He was ecstatic at the thought of being able to take everything at his own pace, trying to slow his eagerness as to not scare Kit. He made sure that each of his kisses were not too hard and that they didn’t specifically target Kit’s lips, a gesture that he thought meant that he was cherishing all of Kit’s face.

Kit felt a giggle rise in his throat as Ty backed away once again, seemingly bewildered at himself for losing his cool like that. “So, not much of a kisser, huh?” Kit teased at him with a smirk, trying not to make the sight of his red face too noticeable.

Ty, calm and collected when it suited him, was unexpectedly annoyed with Kit’s language. “I have never kissed anyone before you,” he reminded the shorter boy with a breathless sigh. But he quickly found himself smiling as he caught wind of Kit’s flushed cheeks.

The night was dark and chilly, so Kit and Ty held onto each other without restraint. They kept on smiling and slowly dancing until Julian eventually got worried and came to pick them up, hissing about not getting a phone call as soon as the dance ended- and having to pick the boys up at 11 instead of 9.

In the car, Julian interrogated them ceaselessly. But all the while, Kit and Ty, in their places on opposite ends of the backseat, held hands the entire ride home grinning like madmen.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so Weak for dancing but can not describe it to save my life. I hope you enjoyed this little thing,,,
> 
> Also, some good songs that inspired this chapter’s creation are:  
> All About Us - He Is We  
> Kiss Me Slowly - Parachute


	3. Irene Adler

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rainy days usually aren't much fun, unless you have someone to spend them with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ty and Kit on a rainy day!! Hanging out!! Having fun!!

Kit was sitting in the sill of his window, feeling bored as ever. Rain spattered on its surface, dropping from the insanely dark clouds covering the sun. He wasn’t particularly keen on rainy days- they made him tired and uninterested in the world and the things happening in it.

He was trying to imagine the sound of the water hitting the pavement. The splats of the rain in his head protected him from his darkest of deep thoughts as the door to his room opened with practically no sound. Kit didn’t even have to look up to know who it was. 

There was only one person he knew that would enter his room like that; abrupt but absolutely silent. Few came in with a bang and a shout, while everyone else either knocked and patiently waited until the go ahead, or said something as they entered without a knock.

Tiberius stalked through the doorway, a thick book tucked under his arm. He was not at all phased by the rain, making his way past Kit with an incognizant confidence that was impossible to fake. He sat on Kit’s bed like he owned it- Kit would happily let him claim it before complaining about how he had no place to sleep. 

Ty went to work through his book with no noise except for the faint turn of a few pages, prompting Kit to finally turn around to appraise him. 

“Any words?” He asked, eyes curiously set on Ty. There was nothing pressing, nothing that he needed to know about- he just wanted to hear Ty speak to him. 

Kit watched as Ty set his book on the bed, the gingham of his blanket bunching under its weight. This signaled to Kit that he wasn’t really interested in reading, as he would continue through conversation if he was. 

Before Ty could get out a word about his lack of them, he found his gaze reflected in that of a cat’s on the outer side of the window balanced atop the tiny ledge. He, of course, recognized this animal immediately. “Irene,” he simply said, “she’s in your window.” 

Kit gave him a strange look, clearly not expecting him to say that, but he turned to the glass behind him- sure enough, there was a cat hunched outside of his window. She was white, brilliantly so, but stained by dirt and rain. Both of her eyes were fixed on not Kit, but Ty. She had two lovely eyes akin to Ty’s gray ones, but hers held the colors brown and blue. “Irene?”

Ty was suddenly off the bed and leaning over Kit’s back, staring right back into the cat’s eyes. Though he was so close to Kit, they never touched; Ty wasn’t all too fond of touching. “A cat that I’m trying to take care of.” He was looking at her intently- Kit knew that he was admiring her. However, Irene seemed unable to understand that. “She’s shy and unpredictable, but I think she’s warming up to me.” 

Kit tried not to panic as Irene shifted her attention to him, her mismatched eyes succinct and mathematical as Ty’s hands at his thighs. She was beautiful, just like her caretaker. 

The second that the cat caught sight of Kit, she scrambled from the window, spooked as he’d ever seen an animal. It wasn’t that he was annoyed that she ran away- he was annoyed that it wasn’t until she noticed him that she ran.

“She’s a good cat,” Ty moved away from Kit faster than lightning, yet indefinitely more precise and calculated. “I like that she doesn’t scratch me as much as she would someone else, though it wasn’t easy to get her to stop.”

Kit wasn’t surprised with how Ty shrouded back in on himself, not wanting to be too close to him. It was fine and something that he was used to, despite touch and closeness being important to him. To Ty, it was harder to care about that sort of thing, he assumed. Ty was leaning against the wall beside Kit’s window now- he looked at peace. “How long have you been looking after her?” Kit offhandedly asked, looking for an excuse for conversation. 

“For almost a month,” Ty said, pondering the time with his fingers. “She came to the Institute and looked like she hadn’t eaten in days, so I fed her a little piece of turkey. She must’ve liked it,” Looking in the direction that Irene ran, Ty smiled gently, “since she keeps coming back.” 

Kit was staring. He knew he was staring and he couldn’t help it. Sure, he had smiled in front of Kit before. Each time felt like the first, though. With his glittering grey eyes and his upturned lips being highlighted by the minimal light outside, Ty looked like a little angel watching over someone he cared about from heaven.

“I don’t think it was the food she liked,” Kit mumbled. He was tracing the dots of water on the window, watching as they slipped down at the lowest speed imaginable. 

Ty didn’t seem to hear him, since he had no response prepared. “I don’t want her to be outside in the rain.” He said quietly, almost like a whisper. Ty was holding his hands together in front of him, watching as they moved. He looked worried. 

“You want to go get her?” Kit wanted to pretend that he wasn’t intensely concerned with the cat’s safety on Ty’s behalf. He was already up and moving before Ty approved the mission, trying to find his shoes and a coat to shield him from the rain. He wasn’t frantic, just trying to be prepared for what was to come. 

He saw Ty nod out of the corner of his eye. Ty was dressed in a plain pair of jeans and a sweater that looked warm. His headphones hung in their usual place around his neck, attached to his phone, which was in his pocket. He was wearing a pair of socks, Kit heard this rather than seeing it as Ty shuffled across the room to sit back on Kit’s bed as he got dressed. 

Ty wasn’t used to things like this- deviation from routines tended to do more harm than good. He found that it would not be something enjoyable, as most people claimed that it would be. Going to retreive Irene would be something he hadn’t planned for, but he didn’t mind it too much, since he’d been thinking about her anyways. 

He would admit (only to himself) that he had come to Kit’s room just to talk -or “hang out” as he said- about Irene and how he wanted to see her again, but he hadn’t accounted for the cat’s impeccable timing. She was a smart cat, just as he had suspected. Or maybe she just wanted to see Ty like he did her, in which case he would’ve been glad. 

Ty didn’t watch as Kit put on his coat. He felt it was too much of an intimate gesture watching people change and things of the like. He decided to look at the cover of the book on Kit’s bed. Ty traced the fancy gold lettering of the title on its surface with an uninterested drag of his fingers. The feel was cool, smooth and satisfying. It was the same satisfaction that watching Kit smile gave him. 

He hadn’t seen that sight in a while- Kit smiling the way he liked was a rarity. In fact, it was more than rare, only happening when the circumstances were in his favor. And, knowing Ty’s luck (which he didn’t believe in for a second), that was nearly impossible. 

When Ty looked up, Kit was standing in front of him, bundled in his coat and his sneakers. He appeared no different than before. Kit did look warmer, in the least. Ty recognized the coat as one of his old ones that his arms were too long for. He ‘grew like a weed,’ Julian had said when he discovered that it didn’t fit. Ty still remembered being younger and upset as his older brother explained that he wasn’t an actual weed, and yes, he still loved him, but that he grew too fast. Ty never understood why he hadn’t said that from the beginning instead of making it more complicated than it had to be. 

“Am I gonna go by myself?” Kit was smirking, but his face was red, Ty noticed. He couldn’t peg what had made Kit that way, besides the nonexistent effort of putting on his coat. 

Ty shook his head, standing up. Kit was suddenly not as tall as he had been, the near top of Kit’s head below his eye level. “No,” he said. Kit looked up at him with a grin that made his heart thump quicker than usual. “I’m going to go get my jacket and shoes.” He was grateful for the excuse to leave.

There was nothing more vibrant than Kit’s smile, Ty thought as he made his way back to his own room. Kit hadn’t followed him, opting to stay back to watch for Irene, so that they might get an idea of where she was before they embarked on their quest to retrieve her from the rain. 

If Ty was to spout a metaphor that he understood to represent Kit, he would say that Kit was a work of art. Livvy told him that it meant that someone was nice to look at, or appealing to the eye. This would be extremely true in Kit’s case, since he was an immensely attractive person. 

Kit was lovely, Ty didn’t even try to deny it. He was a thin figure who carried himself with such a lax grace that had Ty staring at him more than he would someone else. Ty found himself rapt in Kit’s emphatically blue eyes, curled blonde hair and his fair face, marked with smatterings of barely-there freckles. 

But more than anything else, Ty admired a spot on the back of Kit’s right hand. In that place was a rune that he had drawn on Kit (The Voyance rune); he had willingly accepted Ty’s request to draw a permanent rune on him. Ty had been overcome with a sort of possessive feeling whenever he saw it after that. That black marking would remain on Kit’s hand forever, and Ty was the one that put it there. For some reason, being the only person that Kit trusted to mark him made Ty feel gratified in his own right. 

Ty was making a beeline for his coat when he had a sudden thought. If he was thinking these things about Kit, did that mean that he had started to like him? 

As if his memory was answering the question for him, he was granted a memory of a conversation with his older brother. 

“What does it mean to like someone?” Ty had asked one night as Julian was putting him to bed. He was young here, maybe 10 or 11. “Emma told me that if you like someone, you want to kiss and hold their hand and stuff. I like you, and I don’t want to do that. So are there different kinds of ‘like?’” Ty would never forget the stunned face that Julian made in response to his questions. 

He remembered where they were in vivid detail. It was his old bedroom, a corner of darkness with children’s encyclopedias and various other books strewn about. The walls were a shade of baby blue- not a color he really appreciated until now -and the floor’s carpet was tan like his family’s skin. He remembered the bee plushie on his bed, in his arms and close to his heart.

Julian had been a bit younger too, about 13 years old. He was tucking Ty into bed late into the night, trying not to fall asleep himself. However, these sudden questions had woken his brain with a start. “Well,” he began, dragging Ty’s blanket up to his shoulders, “there are different kinds of ‘like,’ yes. There’s one for your family, where you want to protect them from bad things, like our relationship. And the other type of ‘like’ is what Emma said, but I think it’s a little more than that. I think,” he was losing Ty when he started mentioning his thoughts about the matter, but Ty made it his mission to pay attention and learn something, because he cared about what his brother had to say, “that the other type is like the familial kind, but you just add all of those other things. And, it’s usually called ‘love’ in both cases.”

“So, if you love someone as more than family or a friend, you want to protect them but you also want to be…” Ty struggled to find the word to describe his thought. 

“Romantic,” Julian supplied with a smile. 

Ty always felt fondly about memories with Julian. He was his older brother, after all. Julian was a kind soul, willing to do anything for his family. Though it got him into unimaginable trouble, that didn’t change his protective spirit. 

There was that protectiveness in Julian’s personality that Ty recognized in Kit’s. It wasn’t overbearing as his brother’s, but it was still there, and as bright as the flame in his heart to do what was right. 

Ty wasn’t the most sensitive person, but he felt a certain love for that trait. It was as if he was drawn to it, for some reason.

 

Kit was trying to keep watch. He really was, but his mind wasn’t helping as it wandered. It was like his head was working against him in his quest to help Ty. He kept thinking and thinking, no matter how much he tried to quell his thoughts. If only this worked when he was taking a test or trying to look smart. 

As his brain worked faster than he would normally allow, he wondered if this was how Ty always felt. A flurry of information inside of his head, accompanied by flashing lights and too-loud noises that made his brain overload. Kit didn’t think it was sad (he figured that Ty wouldn’t want his pity), but he couldn’t help but feel sorry for Ty. He knew that the other had come to deal with this for the years that he lived, finding out what places, noises, touches and thoughts triggered this response- and learning to avoid such things.

He felt suddenly hot in his coat as he saw Irene run across the ground, chasing a tiny grey figure. Kit assumed that his was a mouse, and he didn’t feel bad for the small creature, it was his fault for picking this place to settle. But he knew that Ty would be devastated to find that Irene had eaten a mouse, so he decided to leave his friend behind in search of the cat to prevent her from consuming the little animal.  

Kit removed himself from his room and he walked through the halls of the Institute, finding the exit a few seconds faster than normal. He didn’t bother stopping to ponder the lovely paintings hung on walls and just the exquisite architecture of the building. 

He stepped outside, sheltered temporarily by the veranda. Kit tried to look through the water falling from the sky, finding it too frequent to see anything but moving puddles. 

Though it was darker outside than it usually was (due to the clouds blocking of the sunlight) , Kit kind of knew where he was going. Near a large tree was where he last saw Irene. It was some sort of Acacia tree, he knew that much. With its evergreen leaves and its furrowed bark, it was a lovely tree. 

Kit was certain that he was headed the right way when he saw the dirty cat seated under that same tree, looking dirty and angry. He assumed that Irene hadn’t caught the mouse, which made him breathe a sigh of relief as he tried to approach slowly. 

As if out of a cloud of smoke like a magician, Ty appeared next to him, equally slow in his amble over to the cat. Kit noticed that he was already soaked in rain (at least his shoulders and head was). Ty’s hair was matted to his face, and his eyes were sharp. He looked like he was formulating a strategy. 

“You have to be slow,” He whispered. Kit nodded at him simply. “She will run away if you’re not.” Ty was being as cautious as ever, it seemed. He was agile and catlike himself, and when he was slow, it felt like the world stopped to watch his every move. 

Kit hung back a bit, letting the more experienced have his hand at the challenge. Irene nearly jumped into his arms when offered, securing a spot close to his heart. He recalled a bit of their conversation earlier, and how Ty had said that he thought that the animal might’ve been warming up to him, and how that was a complete lie. They looked like the best of friends already, with Ty holding her and petting her head steadily. 

Taking this moment to look around (to avoid the jealousy that came with watching that cat look so satisfied in Ty’s arms), Kit found nothing to note, besides the rain deciding to let up to the point of barely any drops falling on the crew. The thick clouds in the sky were starting to depart one by one.

As Ty made his walk back to him, he noticed that the cat looked especially happy there under his hand, and she was just so eager to be touched. “She likes you a lot, Ty.” He called, feeling himself smiling.

“She’s just cold.” He spoke softly, as if in Kit’s ear. He shivered. “I think that cats would rather be held and warm than independent and cold, but there’s a chance I might be wrong.” 

Kit pondered this. He knew that, in the event that Ty was wrong, he wouldn’t mind Kit knowing his mistake. He’d said that a while ago, when they were sharing quite the intimate moment at the Cornwall Institute, with Ty having theorized about a specific element of Annabel and Malcom Fade’s communication from days long passed. He was doubtful of himself in a way that struck Kit as out of character. When Kit commented on his genius, Ty told him that he would fail if that piece of information came to not be of importance, and that he would rather no one know of this failure. 

Kit, of course, said that he would know, to which Ty responded: “ _ I don’t mind, if it’s you.”  _

It was something that made Kit think. He never thought too much about people, finding most easy to read. But Ty was nearly an enigma. His brain was different than the brains of other people in the most fascinating way. 

Ty was fascinating, to say the least. He was a person of many facts and ceaseless details. Ty was handsome, yes, but he was so much more than mere beauty. If Kit ever thought that someone could have a beautiful brain, Ty would be the first and only person to have received this thought. 

“If she’s just cold, then would she mind me petting her?” 

Ty looked at him with wide eyes, as if he were puzzled. After a moment, the expression was replaced by a thin smile. “No,” he said, somehow managing to pry his hand from Irene’s head. “But you have to remember that she’s not used to people touching her.” 

Kit nodded at this, tentatively reaching his hand out to stroke her dirty fur. She seemed almost abhorred by this, moving in Ty’s arms to avoid Kit’s hand. 

Even though it hurt his heart, Kit understood what was happening. He was used to animals paying him no mind. He went to withdraw his hand as his wrist was swiftly caught in Ty’s fingers.

Kit’s heart was in his throat as Ty guided his hand to Irene, who was suddenly more than willing to rise up into their collective touch. The tiny hairs on her were soft and wet, Kit tried his best to feel that while he was drowning in Ty’s fingers on him. Those fingers were hot around his wrist, harsh but not so much that it hurt. Everything felt surreal, absolutely dreamlike as the sun finally broke free from its cloud cage, lighting nearly everything in the area. 

Ty noticed that Kit’s skin was soft, and it reminded him of Livia’s hands. He would hold her hands whenever he was in need of grounding or he got too stressed out. While the list of similarities between Kit and Livvy was growing, Ty found that there was one difference between them, clear as day. 

While Livia’s skin was tan just as Kit’s, there was a considerable amount of freckles on Kit’s skin where Livia had next to none. Ty thought that this was one of his favorite things about Kit’s appearance. It felt as if there were new spots on Kit every time he looked. 

He looked down at where he and Kit were connected, how the sunlight almost separated them in that very spot. Ty was shielded from the setting sun behind a nearby tree. On the other hand. Kit was bathing in its elegance. His hair was completely saturated with light, and his skin glowed right along with it. It was as if his eyes were somehow an ocean caught on fire as he unsightly squinted at his counterpart.

Ty found himself unable to speak as Kit smiled at him. It was a simple grin- but it felt like so much more while Kit was basking in the sun like that. Its brilliance brought color to Ty’s cheeks and made his heart pound as if it were being hit by a hammer in rapid succession. As if his condition could worsen further, he felt every time Kit moved his arm or his hand. Just the touch was bordering on overwhelming. 

Kit was looking at him like he just handed him the sun and stars. His face was wrinkled with his overpowering smile. Ty’s jaw hurt just thinking about smiling that wide. 

“Thank you,” he said. It was a whisper, but the sheer thankfulness in his tone reminded Ty of someone happily shouting. “You know, I’m not really the best with animals,” Kit commented, and Ty couldn’t see what he meant. He was here, wasn’t he? Jointly petting a cat with him after the rain, saying that he wasn’t good with animals. 

Ty shook his head at that, and he felt the hand that held Irene begin to wander about in her fur. The too-soft, prickly feeling was too much for him to handle. All of his senses were on high alert. He felt the dampness of his head and shoulders, and the heaviness of his feet on the wet ground. He felt Kit, hot and thin between his fingers, and he saw Kit smiling and petting the cat in his arms. He saw Kit’s similarly wet hair, bright and sticking to his forehead. Ty didn’t say anything, he didn’t want to say anything, feared the moment would end too soon. He didn’t let go of Kit and he was made aware of how tight his hold was when he felt the exact bones that Kit was moving. “We should probably get back inside, what with the sun setting and all.” 

***

Ty was fresh from the shower, his black hair a crying stormcloud over his head and barely broad shoulders. Some parts of his skin were still wet, teasing Kit’s eyes to his form, hidden beneath a shirt that stuck to his chest. 

“So, where are the clothes?” Kit asked, unquestioning. He couldn’t hear what he was saying as he practically ogled Ty’s body. He could’ve been happy with seeing the outline of Ty’s smooth chest forever, but he knew that he’d grow impatient at not being able to see the whole picture.

“I left you some on the counter,” said Ty, unwrapping his towel from his shoulders. Kit’s eyes suddenly caught with Ty’s. He had this curious look on his wet face. “You’re staring.” He was moving the towel up with the intention of getting it to dry his hair. Kit stared even more intently after feeling a slight twinge of guilt for being caught. 

Ty was haltingly stunning. He looked like a model, with his black hair curling due to its dampness. If Kit was to name one of Ty’s most notable features, he would start with his cupid’s bow lips. They were full and always pink, a nice change from the pale of his skin. Kit didn’t like to admit that he stared at them often, because it sounded kind of creepy, but he couldn’t keep his eyes away. 

Kit had never found it easy to not be envious of Ty’s good looks, and he found it even harder to avoid staring at Ty when he looked like that. Kit found it hard to believe that someone as lovely as Ty could exist. Once he passed away, he would find Ty’s mother in heaven and personally thank her for going through all that she had to make a son like that. 

“You’re beautiful,” Kit blurted this uncontrollably.  By that point, Ty had the towel over his head, and he was bent over and rubbing it into his scalp. Kit didn’t want to watch as Ty gripped its ends. 

There was a long pause. Kit felt his face become hot. That was the wrong thing to say, and it certainly wasn’t timed correctly at all. 

“Beautiful,” Ty repeated. He was quieter than anytime Kit had heard him mumbling to himself, signaling to him that Ty had really taken the word in. He didn’t speak after that and it left Kit feeling a little less than at ease. 

It was not as much a comforting silence as it was a suspenseful one. Kit’s nerves bunched like ill-fitting fabric inside of his stomach as he cursed his stupid brain or thinking that thought and his equally stupid mouth for not having any sort of filter. 

The room felt like it was being turned on its axis, everything was off-kilter. There was not a sound besides their breathing, that is until Irene meowed loudly from her place on Ty’s bed, sprawled on his neat blankets. She, like Kit, was still wet from the rain; she was trailing dirt and mud on the sheets with every shift of her pink paws, but it seemed that Ty couldn’t care less. In all honesty, he seemed more hung up on whispering that cursed word that had left Kit’s mouth not too long ago. 

“Speaking of that,” Kit seamlessly said, like it took no inner struggle to divert the conversation. Though his attempt was in vain as he just so seamlessly trailed off into nothingness. 

Ty was looking at him same as ever as he made his way to his bed. He sat down as Kit began speaking again. Kit watched the mattress jostle slightly as it born his weight, not stirring Irene’s relaxation. “Why did you name her Irene? It seems more like an old lady’s name than a cat’s.” 

“That’s simple,” He said, laying on his back with the grace of any noble. “Irene Adler was a woman that surpassed her gender with her intelligence. At the time of her actions, women were never seen as smart or resourceful- only their beauty or their status mattered,” Ty said, looking up at the ceiling. “But she was insanely clever, more so than most men of that time.” 

It was like he wasn’t even talking to Kit anymore, it was more like he was speaking to the room. “She was one of the first to outsmart Sherlock Holmes. And it was especially significant that she was a woman, considering some of the greatest male minds couldn’t come close to his knowledge of forensics and his theory of deduction. The fact that someone could pull the wool over his eyes- a woman no less- was meaningful. Even if it was only once, she earned his respect.”

He spoke with an unadulterated admiration that Kit found himself drawn to almost instantaneously, even though he had no idea who Ty was talking about, having never read Arthur Conan Doyle’s many works. “And since this cat is a girl that I respect, I decided to name her-” His speech broke,  and he was suddenly sitting up. “Are you bored?”

He looked at Kit with a face that almost seemed worried. Kit was reminded by one of the first times Ty had gone off on a tangent like that; there had been a ferret snuggled around his neck and he was describing how he liked them and that they would make good pets. Kit had been enamored then, not so much interested in the facts that Ty was spouting than how thoughtful and neat his voice had sounded.

Kit was drawn back from his thoughts about how nice Ty’s voice was- rich and deep, like a well of pretty sounds- only to be met with his barely anticipatory stare. “No,” he said quickly, eyes widened and head shaking. He said it again, with more confidence, as if only a little more could bring Ty to believe that being around him was never boring, not in the least, “no.”

While being a person of a somewhat reclusive nature, Ty was still social when it came to Kit, more so than with any other person he knew outside his family. Usually, he would only observe others, but with Kit felt like more than a simple observation, or just undertaking a study of something that he enjoyed.

It seemed that with every new thing he learned about Kit, the less he knew about him. It was hard to put together the pieces of people, not simple like the way that he knew how to touch a hedgehog without pricking himself on its quills. Or holding a cat without letting its claws get to him too much. Or coaxing a weasel from its hiding place so he could pet it and hold it close.

Ty couldn’t even begin describing Kit in a way that felt true, besides rattling off physical things he’d noticed. He was, of course, blonde. He also had blue eyes. He wasn’t too short, but he was shorter than Ty. His skin was tan in most places, though Ty caught a few glances of milky white when Kit’s shirt rode up when he stretched or scratched at an itch on his back or chest.

Kit always walked with a hint of a natural slouch, like he didn’t care about what people thought. Ty had noticed he bit his nails when he was anxious. Similarly, when he was distraught, he would tear his hands through his hair in such a way that tangled it more than it usually was. And when he was happy, his lips would crook up into a tiny grin, or his face would turn red with the effort of keeping in his joy. 

Ty admired his tics and his habits - they made him more human, and not so much like the angel that he appeared to be. At first glance, Kit was nothing more than the perfect description of beauty. But as Ty looked closer, into the dainty folds of his eyelids over his sclerae, he came to find out that Kit was so much more. 

He was temperamental at some points, snarling and hot with anger. At others, he was quiet as a mouse. Ty particularly liked when he was quiet, but he enjoyed every moment when Kit spoke. 

Kit’s speaking voice was nothing to sneeze at. He had a smooth voice, like honey rolling off his tongue with every sweet word he said. It wasn’t all that deep, but that didn’t retract from its loveliness. Ty liked the way he spoke, loud and assertive, with the occasional whisper of something he had to lean in to listen to. He liked how Kit, even in his everpresent confusion, still managed to be confident in his speech. 

Ty made certain to try to leave conversations open so that Kit could have every opportunity to speak with him. Though the back and forth of bantering was difficult, he thought it worth the frustration to speak with his friend. 

He thought about Kit taking the time to speak with him. Kit would frequently explain his unfunny jokes to Ty in an attempt to make him crack a smile. Ty, thinking of this, felt a wave of joy overtake him. If that was anything other than the ‘love’ that Julian had described so long ago, he didn’t know what to think. 

“Kit,” he felt his voice shake, “Do you know what it feels like to be in love?” It was risky for him to ask such a question, maybe a bit too on the nose. 

The words hit Kit like a sandbag, knocking the wind out of him. Whatever he’d expected Ty to say, it wasn’t that. From where he stood in Ty’s room, the other looked like a far-off vision on his bed, his form blurred around the edges because of his pale skin. 

Kit knew better than to assume that his answer meant nothing. After all, Ty had a reason for every breath and every step. “I can’t really say, exactly.” He, without so much as a second thought, went to sit on Ty’s bed, feet easily able to touch the floor from where he was perched. “If there was anyone I knew that I loved, it would be my dad,” he was directing this inward, trying to convince himself that that was the only person. “But that’s not really the answer you were looking for, was it? The truth here is that I don’t know what love- romantic love- is like. And this is going to sound weird, but I think that being in love and loving someone are two different things.”

It didn’t make sense. Ty lowered his eyebrows, blinking at Kit’s words. “How so?”

Kit pressed his lips together before sighing through his nose. “I think ‘being in love’ is inherently something more than just being family or friends with someone. It would be like- it’s different, how you love Livvy and how you would love someone else, like your girlfriend.” 

Ty made a face. “I don’t think I like girls.” He spoke tentatively as if the words were like dropping a bomb. As if saying something like that would be offensive or bad in any way. 

But this didn’t matter to Kit, not in the slightest. He was too determined to teach Ty about love than to be excited because  _ he had a chance.  _ But then again, Ty saying that he didn’t like girls could also mean that he didn’t like anyone. Which Kit would be fine with just the same. But the hope was still there. “So then, your partner. There’s something about love that’s different in family and outside of family. And, being someone who had never really experienced that difference, I can’t tell you what it feels like. But a long time ago, my dad told me that when I was in love, I would just know. I think he was joking, but that really stuck with me for some reason.” He made what was left to make of his point. 

Ty felt himself shrink into his covers, lying back down to stare at the ceiling.  Kit, still sitting on the edge of his bed, soon accompanied him in stargazing at the misshapen plaster. He felt a contemplative feeling, curiosity rising in him like magma in a soon-to-explode volcano. Feelings were difficult, but at least Kit knew how to explain things in a way that Ty understood (sometimes). But he still wasn’t sure whether what he felt for Kit could very well be love.

He thought about the way that this strangeness toward Kit made him feel, and what it made him desire. It made his heart flutter, much like his hands always seemed to do. He wanted to listen to what Kit had to say, so he avoided using his headphones when Kit was around. He thought about wanting to see Kit all the time. He thought about finding something new, and wanting to hear what Kit said about it. He wanted Kit to trust him, and to tell him about his day and ask about his own day. 

Tiberius, in his inexperience with this specific branch of this specific emotion, thought something like that could be called love. 

As Ty thought about these various things, he felt the shift of a warm body against him. He smiled, knowing that Irene wanted his attention. She cuddled close to him, and he held her like he wanted to hold Kit when he was upset. 

He looked over at the boy in question, only to find that Kit was looking at him as well. He grinned, and Ty’s stomach seized. But he felt happy.

The room fell into a silence once again. This time, it was sincere and comfortable. They both knew that times like these weren’t all too common, and reveled in that feeling of fleeting peace. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dude this took Way too long for me to write... It feels like I'm working on like 20 different things all the time. But, that is the life of someone who writes.
> 
> It feels like every time I write Ty, it gets progressively worse. Let's hope it isn't too bad here. 
> 
> Hope you all enjoyed!!!


	4. For Good

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kit and Ty face their most fearsome battle yet: losing each other.
> 
> this is a weird like witch au so please just try to understand.
> 
> also, it's Really short so uhhhhhh sorry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: This chapter has some pretty mild gore and lots of mentions of blood, so please skip this one if those things affect your mental health.
> 
> it's also extremely angsty and Weird honestly? just don't question it please
> 
> it was also conceived and written in like 7 hours so please read with caution
> 
> wicked just gives me a lot of feelings and i really like it so i wanted to write about arguably my favorite song from wicked thank you 
> 
> also listen to this when the lyrics come up cause uh this could be how they sing idk i just like this version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j80mCLNTugk

Light. Haltingly beautiful light that blocks Kit’s vision. Light that was headed straight for the rock that Tiberius had scrambled behind in this time of danger. Light that quite frankly resembled the call of a person to heaven.

Tiberius’ back was to the rock, his knees in front of his face, his fragile hands covering the back of his neck. He was not ready. He was not ready. He was not—

The final blast shot through the rock, leaving rubble in its wake. What had attacked them spared no time in leaving. Tiberius felt nothing, but his hands came away red and wet as he reached down to touch his stomach. He saw the black fluid spewing and sputtering in every direction, and the pain only began to sink in. His entire stomach seized, now laden with a fist-sized hole and nothing to show for it besides more blood. His head was suddenly empty, and he felt dizzy and he started coughing endlessly.

And then there was silence. The rapid drumming of Kit’s ears brought him to his knees far before he could officially complete his run over to his other half. He rose and fell more times than he could count, losing balance and hearing because of the blasts of energy that had pierced that same boulder that he hid behind. He crawled to get there, having sprained his ankle on one of the falls, but there would be no keeping him from Tiberius.

Kit saw it. He saw the blood. He saw the hole in Ty’s body, a clean shot that had knocked a hunk of flesh and muscle out in front of them. He was trembling, shaking so much that Kit could see it from a few feet away.

He wished he was deaf. He wished he was deaf because Tiberius was screaming and wailing, trying desperately to catch his lost breath.

He wished he was blind. He wished he was blind because Tiberius was holding the cavity in his stomach, trying to keep the blood inside. It was spilling out of his mouth and his nose, dripping onto his clothes. It was in his hair already, and on his eyelids.

His skin was a canvas, so pure and white, and the blood was the first stroke of paint.

Kit failed to contain his vomit before rushing to Ty’s side. He shrieked out healing spell upon healing spell, and nothing worked. His vibrant grey eyes were starting to go milky—the motions of his hands were starting to slow, his form slumping, slouching forward.

As Kit caught him, he was already reaching for his shirt. Christopher let Ty to try and tear the sleeve for a makeshift gauze as he tore the other sleeve off as quickly as his fingers would allow for. There wasn’t enough to tie around Tiberius’ middle, but Kit held the ball of polyester to the hole, heart emptying and millions of tears slipping down his cheeks as it was quickly soaked with the other’s blood.

Tiberius opened his mouth to speak. The red stained his tongue and lips, and Kit could not hold back a sob as the other man almost lost his words.

“The song…” he said. His breath had long since left him, but he forced out his message about the healing song that they’d learned a few days before, the song that failed them when Kit had been stabbed by a demon and was on the brink of death.

“If it didn’t work last time—” Kit applied more pressure to the fabric in his hands, “it won’t work this time!” His words were a blubber and his vision was blurry from the constant stream of tears.

Tiberius shook his head—clearly more than he could handle as he choked on the impending flow of blood through his mouth. “Sing, Kit,” he spat up more and more red as he spoke.

Kit bit the inside of his cheek, teeth digging into the wet skin It was a waste of their time to try another stupid spell. What he should have been doing was dragging Ty back to a safer spot. They were an easier target out in the open. But if this was Tiberius’ final request—it _wasn’t._ Kit was going to get him out of there—who was he to deny it?

Pressing harder on the shirt-gauze, Kit began to sing the spell.

 

“I’ve heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason,”

 

“Bringing something we must learn,” Kit sang quiet enough for the smallest of insects to hear, and he knew that Tiberius was listening.

 

“And we are led to those who help us most to grow, if we let them,”

 

“And we help them in return,” he was but a few measures in before he started to lose the tune and the tears just kept pouring from his eyes, but he pressed on nonetheless.

 

Kit could feel the energy leaving him just the same as last time (the song is a duet that works strongest when sung by two witches, but can be used by one in extreme circumstances), but he knew that this was going to get them nowhere. By the time he would be done, Tiberius would be long gone. Kit doubted that this was really worth it, but he was not about to let his partner down.

 

“Well I don’t know if I believe that’s true,”

 

“But I know I’m who I am today because I knew you.”

 

How ironic, that line. It really hit close to home, Kit thought.

He felt Ty’s hand on his back, and he immediately gave in. If Tiberius believed, then Kit could as well. His voice lifted only slightly, above a whisper but not to full volume.

 

“Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes the sun,”

 

“Like a stream that meets a boulder, halfway through the wood,”

 

“Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better?” Kit’s voice cracked and he heaved on through the grip of early grief on his heart.

 

Ty interrupted him by coughing loudly once more, “It will work this time, Kit… ”

Tiberius’ hand fell away. Kit heard it hit the ground. _Thump._

Kit’s body felt limp. He was in the presence of this wonderful man, this man whose mind worked as quickly as a bolt of lightning, this man whose infrequent smile could light up an entire ocean. He was right here, and yet it felt like he was so far, like he was light years away.

 

“But because I knew you,”

 

“I have been changed, for good.” His voice shorted out as he bawled.

 

That was it. That was the spell. It should have begun to work by now. And yet, no skin sewed itself back together, no invisible caretaker wiped the mess from Tiberius’ pale arms and face with her kind hand. Kit let his head fall onto Ty’s knees, not caring about the blood that stained his face and clung to his hair. But he never let the gauze go, not for a million years.

Tiberius did not move an inch. Kit wept openly, hiccupping for his breathe when he felt the need to pause. He felt guilty for being able to breathe. His fingers dared not stray from Ty’s stomach, but they unintentionally surveyed the damage. They found a hole the size of a small doorknob.

It felt like an eternity had passed before Kit moved, before he decided to try to tell everyone else about what had happened. He found that he could not get up, that his leaden heart was weighing him down to still lay on the one beneath him.

His warmth was fleeting, so Kit tried to rub it back into him, to keep the life and the soul inside from escaping. His palms were torn from his crawl over here, so there was a significant difficulty in warming Ty back up.

Kit could not bring himself to lift his head. He would sooner light himself on fire than stare into the eyes of—

 

He suddenly heard the next verse of the song in his head:

 

“It well may be that we will never meet again in this lifetime,”

 

“So let me say before we part,”

 

“So much of me was made because of what I learned from you.”

 

“You’ll be with me, like a handprint on my heart.”

 

The voice that sang it inside his head was small and wobbly, as if it were trembling. The low, shaky sounds made Kit want to punch something.

There it was again, that song that had failed him twice now. Apparently Tiberius having been shot through his body was not a dire enough situation for the damned spell to work.

Kit wished more than anything he could take it back. He could have done so many things that might have actually helped, but he had to sing the stupid song because Ty believed it would work, and it didn’t.

Its words continued to cycle through his head and they only made the knot inside of him tighten. His eyes were starting to dry because of dehydration, his lungs felt like they could never work in the same way again. And his heart felt the worst of all. It was completely numb, like if he’d sat on his foot for too long.

 

“And now whatever way our stories end,”

 

“I know you have rewritten mine by being my friend.”

 

That taunt was one that made Kit crack. He really thought that he could not cry any harder, but at least this doubt of his could be proven wrong. He had trouble breathing then, he choked on his cries and dug his fingers into the places around Tiberius’ injury, trying to close it manually.

And that was when he really opened his ears to the tiny gasp of pain and the cease of the singing from before. He realized too late that this singing had not been occurring inside of his head. The jostle of the body that was underneath him made Kit jump back. He stared right into the eyes of Tiberius, who looked right back at him with the same sort of stupor.

But as Kit began to ask why or how this could even begin to happen, Ty jumped right back into singing his part.

 

“Like a ship blown from its mooring by a wind from the sea,”

 

“Like a seed dropped by a sky bird in a distant wood.”

 

“Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better?”

 

“But because I knew you,”

 

“I have been changed, for good.”

 

The spell didn’t even wait for the weak Tiberius to finish before going to work. A burst of light emerged from the hole, and Kit found that he could not look away as it sealed itself with the magical image of a needle and golden thread. Ty did not wince during this quick process.

It occurred to Kit long after it should have that that spell they’d used was working. What he was seeing was not some trick of the eye, he knew that. And yet it was still hard to believe.

Suddenly the needle stopped, and Kit looked up to see Ty staring at him expectantly.

“We’ll need to finish the spell,” He said, as if nothing had happened. As if he had not died in that very spot he sat in and was brought back to life through Kit deciding that he needed to finish his verse. “Will you do it with me?”

Kit could not even find the time to nod before counting them in to the last part of the song, the most emotional part, if he were to have a say. The reason he thought this was because he got to sing it with Ty, and that meant more to him than words could ever say.

 

“Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better?” They both sang, and Kit felt fresh tears slipping down his cheeks.

 

The song was organized in such a way that they were to harmonize with each other, and that they did. The notes swirled in the open air, and they felt so raw and so real.

 

“I do believe I have been changed for the better.” Kit could not help the hand that wandered into Ty’s, and he smiled at him tenderly.

 

“And because I knew you,” Tiberius sang this first, beating Kit to it.

 

Kit hesitated for a moment, the feelings stirring inside of him in a way that made him want to smile and weep all at the same time,  “Because I knew you,”

 

They joined one last time, the harmony and melody so sweet in Kit’s pounding ears, “Because I knew you,”

 

“I have been changed, for good.”

 

As if it was satisfied, the needle kept going until the job was completed, leaving Ty all stitched up and looking absolutely bewildered. It disappeared soon after, along with the magic that had brought it there.

“It worked,” he said, looking down at his stomach. “It really worked.” He cast a glance to each of his hands, as if they were somehow responsible for what had just taken place.

Kit could not help himself. He threw his arms around Tiberius, crying into his shoulder with the heart of someone who had just seen a resurrection. And Tiberius was quick to accept this embrace, pulling him as close as he could be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *me, coming in hot after nearly 4 months of not updating this:* here take this shit
> 
> oof just as i suspected-- the trash gods have called for me again, they'd like their piece back.


End file.
